By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published Sept. 2, 2010

The S.C. Legislative Audit Council met Wednesday but did not take up a request for an audit of Patriots Point, the financially strained naval ship museum in Mount Pleasant.

Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, has requested an audit of the Patriots Point Development Authority, which operates the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum.

McConnell’s request came in the form of a July 23 letter to the council’s director, Thomas Bardin, containing a long list of questions about the tourist attraction’s operations and financial management.

Last week, Bardin said the request should come up for consideration at the council’s Sept. 1 meeting. Andrea Truitt, general counsel, today said the item was not on the agenda for the Wednesday meeting.

Truitt said the council discussed current audits but not requests for future audits. Right now, the Legislative Audit Council does not have staff available to conduct additional audits, she said.

“We take up audit requests when we have staff available,” she said.

Truitt said the request is likely to come up at a future meeting, but no date is set at this time.

McConnell’s request for an audit came as a result of Patriots Point’s struggles to find funding to maintain its historic Naval ships, which have a backlog of repair needs. The attraction borrowed $9.2 million from the state last summer for emergency repairs to the USS Laffey, which developed holes in its rusting hull in late 2008 and began taking on water.

The 18-month loan is coming due soon, and Patriots Point does not have the money to repay it.

Officials were counting on a $20 million federal appropriation to repay the loan. Last week, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., effectively doomed that plan by saying he does not support the request. Clyburn is the U.S. House majority whip.

“Patriots Point must work its way out of this hole, not only for the benefit of the monument attraction and the state, but also because a bailout is out of the question,” McConnell wrote in his July 23 letter. “The audit to be requested may well be a crucial part of the blueprint to help save Patriots Point.”

Leaders of the Patriots Point Development Authority have said they welcome an audit.

The authority is considering a master plan that would allow for more intense development on 367 acres it owns adjacent to the ships. The plan is meant as a way to generate more revenue.

Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129.