Governor wants 2 senators taken off panel

JIM DAVENPORT, Associated Press

COLUMBIA -- Gov. Mark Sanford on Monday called for the removal of two senators from a Judiciary subcommittee looking at issues tied to Santee Cooper, saying they have a conflict of interest.

The five-senator panel appointed by Judiciary chairman Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, has questioned decisions made by the board at the nation's second-largest public owned electric power producer.

McConnell said he was disappointed Sanford raised his concerns three months after the senators were appointed to the panel and "only after the subcommittee began to ask hard questions of the governor's Santee Cooper board appointees on the board's failure to comply with the state's open meeting law, possible board members' conflicts of interest and the board's attempts to push the sale of Santee Cooper."

Mescher, Hutto

Sanford said he wants Sens. Bill Mescher of Pinopolis and Brad Hutto of Orangeburg off the Subcommittee on Santee Cooper Board of Directors Appointees.

"Essentially you've got a $90,000-a-year Santee Cooper lobbyist with a sweetheart land deal and a $100,000-a-year Santee Cooper lawyer attempting to act as both judge and jury here," Sanford said.

Mescher has a $90,000 annual pension from Santee Cooper and lives in a house on a lakefront lot leased for $350 year from the utility, Sanford said.

Mescher said both are part of his 1976 agreement to work for the utility as its chief executive officer -- a job he held until 1989.

Hutto has picked up $300,000 in legal fees from Santee Cooper from 2001 to 2004, Sanford said.

Hutto confirmed that he and a partner represented Santee Cooper in a 1998 case in Orangeburg County, but said there is no ongoing relationship. "I am not a Santee Cooper lawyer," Hutto said.

Mescher and Hutto should not vote on Santee Cooper-related issues, Sanford said, "due to clear and compelling conflicts of interest."

"Common sense dictates that your vision can get a little bit blurry when you are receiving these kinds of benefits, and we need people with objective views in this debate," said Sanford, who, like Mescher, is a Republican.

Mescher and Hutto, a Democrat, said there are no conflicts.

Sanford's criticism is odd since "just about everybody Sanford has appointed to Santee Cooper is a big-time contributor to his campaign," said Lachlan McIntosh, executive director of the state Democratic Party. "Apparently, Sanford is OK with conflicts as long as they benefit him.

"It sounds like the governor wants to remove committee members who are close to finding out something he wants to keep a secret. It's Nixonian."

Sanford spokesman Will Folks disagreed.

"The only criteria the governor has set on his appointments is that they look out for the bottom line at Santee Cooper the same way they look out for their own bottom line," Folks said.

Mescher said Sanford is "grasping at straws to save his board members," when he should be looking at information the panel has gathered on the appointees. The information convinced Mescher that five board members should removed because "they are guilty of malfeasance and misfeasance and dereliction of duty."

Sanford's request that the senators be removed comes as the future of the utility's board is on his desk.

Veto expected, as is an override

The governor has until midnight tonight to veto a bill that would limit his ability to remove Santee Cooper board members and that forces those board members to meet higher professional and experience standards. "A veto is forthcoming," Sanford spokesman Will Folks said.

The Legislature is expected to override a veto.