A bipartisan panel of five state senators was scheduled to release a report this morning saying Santee Cooper board members repeatedly and recklessly mismanaged the state-owned utility for more than two years, capping a months-long investigation that included 22 hours of hearings and about 10,000 pages of e-mails and documents.

The statement, written by Sen. Luke Rankin, said bullying by a few rogue board members jeopardized the power company's stellar credit rating and could have been costly for taxpayers and the utility's customers and bondholders. The report also said those directors deflated morale at the utility while pursuing a political agenda for Gov. Mark Sanford, who appointed them to their posts.

The subcommittee called for the immediate removal or resignation of Director Richard Coen, a developer from Mount Pleasant who has served on the Santee Cooper board since June 2003. It also said the board should refocus on its core mission of providing power and water statewide.

"This sense of maverick-type service was deeper than I imagined," Rankin said. "I don't want to overstate the impact of our findings, but clearly the financial community was concerned. ... And from the employee and customer perspectives, I think there's been a sigh of relief."

Coen said Monday that he planned to ignore the report.

"No one on the Santee Cooper board, in my opinion, had done anything illegal, immoral or unethical," he said. "This is pure politics. ... If they'd done this in a business or a social environment, they would be the subject of a very credible lawsuit."

Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell asked Rankin and four other senators to research board actions and screen a number of appointees to the board this spring. Basing their investigation on a series of articles in The Post and Courier, Judiciary Committee attorneys uncovered what they called a pattern of mismanagement.

Specifically, the subcommittee said Coen and fellow directors Guerry Green and Keith Munson overstepped their bounds last fall when they helped Sanford's office hire an investment bank to complete a valuation study of Santee Cooper. The subcommittee said directors micromanaged utility executives in selling land and negotiating contracts. They also said the board repeatedly violated open-meeting laws and conducted its duties without "dignity and respect."

Green, a board member since 2003 whose appointment to the chairman's seat Sanford withdrew in May, said the Senate inquiry distorted facts for political gain.

"The board might have asked some questions people weren't comfortable with, but it never overstepped its bounds," Green said Monday. "There's no question that if everybody could dial back the clock, they'd probably do things differently, but there was certainly never anything done underhanded."

The report was circulated last week to media outlets that agreed not to publish or disseminate it before today. Sanford's office declined to comment on the report Monday because it had not received a copy. Sanford spokesman Will Folks said he would answer questions only from news outlets that broke the embargo agreement and provided a copy of Rankin's statement.

Folks also declined to comment on the status of Sanford's other appointments to the board.

Sanford has voiced support for his embattled appointees in recent weeks and called the Senate inquiry a kangaroo court, although he has declined to answer questions on specific board actions.

Since the investigation began in late May, the Santee Cooper board has been in upheaval. Several directors have criticized the actions of their fellow board members. And Sanford withdrew and then resubmitted his appointment of Green, one of his most-criticized nominees.

In late May, Sanford said Green, who owns a manufacturing company in Georgetown, was not going to win approval from the Senate. But Green said he got a letter from Sanford July 5 reappointing him to the director's seat that he filled before he was named chairman in December.

Sanford withdrew the nomination of Carl Falk, who had filled Green's former seat in recent months and was recommended by the Senate subcommittee.

Director Keith Munson, whose board tenure was repeatedly called into question by the Senate investigation, resigned in late May. Munson, an Upstate attorney, maintained he did nothing wrong at the utility and said he stepped down because of a new law that allows Santee Cooper customers to sue the utility's board members.

That legislation also forbids the governor from removing directors without cause and establishes qualifications for future appointees.

In a 4-1 vote, the Senate subcommittee supported Sanford's nomination of Myrtle Beach emergency room physician Dr. John Molnar to the Santee Cooper board. The panel has yet to vote on Interim Chairman Dial DuBose, an Upstate developer who has served on the board since May 2003. Sanford has appointed Charleston construction magnate O.L. Thompson III to chair the utility.

Thompson and Green can serve on the board if they are approved by a 10-member public utilities review committee. The full Senate will review and vote on all of the nominees when the General Assembly next convenes, although the lawmakers have no power to oust directors.

Santee Cooper, the nation's second-largest public-owned utility, generates power for about 40 percent of the state -- 760,000 homes, businesses and factories.