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COLUMBIA -- One of the first things state Highway Commissioner John Hardee said he did when taking office was to make sure there was no conflict in serving both as a commissioner and as an executive with an outdoor advertising firm.

The state Department of Transportation regulates billboards. Since 1998, Hardee has been a member of DOT's seven-member board. He also serves as director of governmental affairs for Lamar Advertising, one of the nation's major billboard companies. A subsidiary of Lamar has twice won multimillion-dollar DOT contracts.

Herb Hayden, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, said he talked with Hardee about his concerns years ago and told him he was clear to serve both because DOT is not considered a regulatory agency under the law. Officials with regulatory agencies, he said, cannot serve as both a regulator and an official with a regulated company.

He said an agency is considered regulatory if it controls which companies are permitted to do business in a given field, such as a utility. Because DOT regulates billboards but has no control over which companies are in the billboard business, it is not considered a regulatory agency, Hayden said.

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Hardee said he asked for the opinion because "I didn't want to embarrass myself or the state."

Hardee's board service poses no conflict even when his firm or a subsidiary does business with DOT as long as Hardee does not vote on any business dealings between the two or take any official action, Hayden said.

Hardee said he has never voted on a matter related to Lamar or its subsidiaries, including SC Logos.

He said he refrained from voting several years ago on revisions to outdoor advertising regulations.

"I got up and left the room," he said. "I'm very careful about it."