COLUMBIA--Charleston-area lawmakers put on an entertaining -- and telling -- demonstration of parliamentary procedure in the Senate this week that may foreshadow the debate on a bill to restructure the county's school system.

Sen. John Kuhn, sponsor of the legislation, tried Wednesday to get second-reading approval for the measure and ran head-first into other Charleston-area senators trying, for the moment at least, to stop him.

The bill, which would abolish the constituent school boards, elect the nine school board members from single-member districts in partisan elections and move all day-to-day operating responsibilities to a superintendent, has been somewhat controversial. It's been held up because it needed technical amendments and some senators wanted time to draft other changes. Officially, that is.

As soon as Kuhn made his motion, Sen. Clementa Pinckney objected, asking for more time to study the issue and write amendments. Kuhn refused to back down. Pinckney then moved to get the bill on the contested calendar, which would hold up the vote.

But by himself, Pinckney, who represents the southern end of the county (along with Jasper County), did not have enough power under the Senate's weighted voting rules to stop Kuhn.

That's when Sen. Robert Ford asked Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, another Charles-ton senator, whether his added weight would be enough to move the bill to a contested calendar. McConnell was presiding over the Senate in the absence of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and said, as the presiding officer, "I cannot give advisory opinions."

Ford said "OK," then added his weight to Pinckney's motion.

McConnell immediately declared the bill moved to the contested calendar.

But Sen. Arthur Ravenel of Mount Pleasant argued that Ford and Pinckney didn't have the 60 percent of Charleston County's weight needed to move the bill.

McConnell, still presiding, read off the senators' names and the weight: "Ford, Pinckney and ... McConnell."

Because he's not eligible to debate while presiding, McConnell hadn't given his opinion on moving the bill before weighing in on the issue. Ravenel, still unconvinced, asked for a recount -- and caught them. The Senate clerk decided the three senators were .11 percent shy of the 60 percent threshold.

Immediately, Sen. Larry Grooms, who also represents a slice of the county, said, "Add my name to that."

And just like that, the bill moved to the contested calendar.

Afterward, McConnell said the Senate was only extending courtesy to Pinckney. The Senate, he said, always gives its members the time they need.

But the little display also indicates there may still be some concerns with this major school overhaul legislation.

Tune in next week for a possible outcome.

The House this week set up a committee to study the possibility of military base closings in South Carolina, with the idea of finding ways to prevent that.

After losing the city's Navy base in 1993, Charleston-area lawmakers are sensitive to the issue. Their representative on that six-member panel is Rep. Chip Limehouse.

"We can make strong arguments for keeping them," Limehouse said. "I think with our strategic location and our Air Force base in Charleston, which is a lifeline for the military, we need to be expanding the military in South Carolina, not cutting it back."

House Speaker David Wilkins, who created the ad hoc committee, said he expects it to recommend ways the state can make it more attractive to Washington to leave South Carolina bases open. There's no deadline on the recommendations, but Wilkins is requesting them ASAP.

Gov. Mark Sanford held his first Cabinet meeting Wednesday, and it was closed to the press until the final minutes. When the pack of journalists was allowed into the conference room, reporters asked Sanford why they couldn't watch and questioned his need for an attorney's opinion on the matter.

Sanford argued that his Cabinet members couldn't have a frank talk with cameras bearing down on them. "I want (Corrections Director) John Ozmint to be able to get up on the table and yell" at another Cabinet member if he felt the need, Sanford said.

The House has been debating a bill that would take a smack at totalitarian homeowners associations that are cropping up across South Carolina. State Rep. Rebecca Meacham-Richardson of York County this week told House members that one of her constituents is being fined $25 a day by his homeowners association for flying the American flag, which is against the neighborhood covenants. His bill is now upwards of $850.

The House has been reluctant to pass this bill, which they see as bullying these little panels of folks with nothing better to do, but they hate to vote against the flag -- so they keep delaying the vote.

House members had no problem, however, passing this week what some call "The Body Fluids Act of 2003," a bill that cleans up language in a law that makes it illegal for inmates to throw "body fluids" on a state or local correctional facility employee."

It is still legal, evidently, for them to throw it at each other.

Limehouse has introduced legislation to excuse any South Carolinian who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of a terrorist from paying state income taxes on the reward money.

If you needed more incentive to hunt for Osama bin Laden's buds in Berkeley County, there it is.