In late September, the Santee Cooper board rejected six direct bids on four parcels. If directors had accepted the highest offer on each plot, the utility would have collected $6,054,571, about $907,000 more than the combined appraised values of the land.

"I'm not happy about it at all," said Grover "Bubba" Rabon III, a Myrtle Beach developer who offered Santee Cooper $5.38 million for a 31-acre tract in Litchfield County. "We've complied with everything. We're ready to put up our deposit and we expect them to follow through with the deal."

The bid made by Rabon and a business partner, Fred McGill of Pawleys Island, amounted to $751,000, a price 16.2 percent higher than the appraised value of the parcel he bid on.

Rabon's arguments may fall on deaf ears, because while Santee Cooper is owned by the state, it receives no taxpayer support and is thus exempt from state procurement regulations. That means that, unlike government agencies, the utility is not required to solicit bids or accept the highest bid, though it typically does follow that pattern.

Not all of the bidders are making a fuss. Joseph Rogers, a developer from Waxhaw, N.C., said he is not upset about having his bid rejected. He offered $654,321 for 1.53 acres in Horry County, 30.9 percent more than the appraised value. Rogers said he is still interested in buying the land, but won't fight the Moncks Corner-based utility over the matter.

"I don't feel slighted at all," he said. "I'm a businessman, too, and I understand why they would make a decision like they did."

The land sale has been a contentious issue since March 21, when the board approved a plan to unload 1,100 acres -- 33 separate plots in all -- valued at an estimated $13.5 million. Gov. Mark Sanford has advocated the selling of surplus state land by Santee Cooper and other state agencies since he took office.

Nine of Santee Cooper's 11 board members are Sanford appointees. At Sanford's behest, the board has asserted its influence on a number of issues that did not receive the attention of previous boards.

The land sale is one of those issues.

Sanford asked for the proceeds of the land sales to be directed to state coffers. In response, Santee Cooper made a $6.5 million payment to the state in July, financed with short-term debt. Another $6.5 million payment is scheduled Jan. 15. The utility plans to pay off those bonds with proceeds from the property sales.

But the board has been split on how best to recoup that money. In late July, several board members suggested the utility hire a private real estate brokerage to market the property. Doing so would be a first in Santee Cooper history.

Richard H. Coen, a Charleston area real estate developer appointed to the Santee Cooper board by Sanford, recommended Broad Street Advisors, a Manhattan-based property broker that Coen had retained to market a 12-acre waterfront plot in Mount Pleasant owned by his company.

At Coen's urging, Santee Cooper executives spoke with Broad Street Advisors and sent the company a bid package on the properties. Broad Street representatives flew down to see the 31-acre Litchfield County plot on Aug. 11.

Meanwhile, Santee Cooper's property-management department mistakenly put the four properties out for bid in its traditional manner, via newspaper advertisements, fliers and a continually updated mailing list.

In response, Santee Cooper executives told the board the company could retract the bid notices, but the board decided to wait and see what offers came in and then decide whether to accept them.

Then, at a Sept. 27 meeting, after receiving the bids, the board voted to reject offers received from Rabon and others and opted to move ahead with interviews of brokerage firms. The move contradicted a Santee Cooper staff recommendation on the question. Discussions on the decision were heated.

"You shouldn't change the rules once you start playing the game," board member Patrick Allen said during the meeting.

Several directors, including J. Calhoun Land IV and Chairman Graham Edwards, said their "gut" told them Santee Cooper should work with the bids the company had already received.

Those in favor of rejecting the bids claimed that the bid packages barely penetrated the market of potential buyers.

Coen argued the merits of using professionals to market the land, as he had for weeks in e-mails to fellow board members and company executives.

"If we sell at this price, we are leaving several million on the table," Coen wrote fellow directors in early September, after direct bids for the property were received.

Broad Street Advisors, the company recommended by Coen, withdrew its bid on Oct. 21, a day after The Post and Courier received weeks of board members' correspondence obtained via public records laws.

In an Aug. 4 e-mail to Coen, Santee Cooper Chief Executive Officer Lonnie Carter indicated he expected that Broad Street would be considered along with other firms.

"We will try to get at least a couple of proposals from other firms for the board's consideration," Carter said in his note.

Santee Cooper sent out its request for proposals 21 days later to 54 realty firms; Broad Street was the only out-of-state recipient.

Several days later, Coen sent a message to Santee Cooper staff and fellow directors calling the request for proposals a "joke" and asking why so many companies were included.

"Broad Street went to the time and expense to fly down here to preview the property," Coen pointed out in the message.

Broad Street Advisors did not return phone calls seeking comment, but in a letter to Santee Cooper the company wrote that "given Santee Cooper's immediate need for disposition of this single asset, we have determined that we are probably not Santee Cooper's best choice."

On Wednesday, both Coen and Carter said Santee Cooper's land sale wasn't a big enough deal for Broad Street Advisors in the end.

"I feel very good about the three we have left," Coen said.

Coen said that in recommending Broad Street, he was looking for a "third-party" company that could do a thorough evaluation of Santee Cooper's entire portfolio.

"You really need someone with a comprehensive real estate background to look at all these properties," Coen said. "For me, the best is yet to come."

A board vote on the matter may come as soon as Friday.

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