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Ousted SPA board member sues governor for seat back
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
A S.C. State Ports Authority board member dismissed by Gov. Mark Sanford Jan. 7 has filed suit in the Lexington County Circuit Court, charging the governor exceeded his office’s powers by removing him.
Sanford pulled Carroll A. “Tumpy” Campbell III, son of former Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. and a one-time political ally, from the board citing a potential conflict of interest regarding the state’s lobbying rules.
While Campbell acknowledges SPA board members serve at the discretion of the governor, he said documents released to the media concerning the dismissal, as well as published comments by the governor’s staff, showed that he was dismissed for cause. That, Campbell maintained, gives him a right to appeal the governor’s action to the circuit court.
The break between the two men came after Campbell, whose term was set to expire in 2010, established what he describes as simply a consulting firm in Columbia in 2005.
The issue reached a flashpoint in April 2007, when Campbell announced that his Carroll Campbell and Associates had launched a Columbia office and hired Russell Munn and Nikki Hutchison, two well-established lobbying specialists.
Joel Sawyer, a Sanford spokesman, said that announcement started a series of conversations between the governor, his staff and Campbell.
“This is something we struggled with, but the decision we ultimately arrived at was not a surprise,” Sawyer said. “We told Tumpy all along that our position was that if it’s not OK for a registered lobbyist to sit on a state board, how can it be OK for the owner and operator of a lobbying firm to sit on a board? It’s a matter of honoring the spirit as well as the letter of the law.”
The governor had not yet been served with a copy of the suit and could not comment on its specifics, Sawyer said.
“We’ll take a look when and if we are (served), but there’s no question in our minds that the governor was on very solid ground in exercising his removal power,” he said.
The matter came to a head on Jan. 3, when Tom Davis, the governor’s chief of staff, sent Campbell a letter informing him of his impending dismissal. In the letter, Davis acknowledged that Campbell was not a registered lobbyist himself, but added that his involvement in both entities creates the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Campbell has flatly rejected the assertion that he’s a lobbyist.
“I have done nothing wrong, and that’s why I believe the governor has abused the power the public entrusted in him,” Campbell said. “You issue an executive order when there’s a serious problem; you don’t issue an executive order when you want to remove someone with whom you have a difference of opinion.”
Campbell said he believes the real reason for his dismissal is a longstanding difference of opinion with Davis over the role that the private sector and, in particular, private capital, ought to play in the operation and financing of the state’s ports.
He also believes it is a prelude to renewed pressure to privatize port operations at the new Navy Base terminal and the planned Jasper County terminal that South Carolina is developing in partnership with the state of Georgia.
In 2005, when Davis served on the SPA board, a proposal to privatize port operations was being considered. Davis was joined by two other board members in support of the plan, which called for private terminal operator SSA Marine to take over operation of the terminal while the SPA served as landlord of the operation. Campbell was in the majority that opposed it.
“My position was and remains that I would love to engage in a public-private partnership that brought additional funding to the port to support expansion and would be guaranteed a certain volume of cargo moving through our facilities,” Campbell said.
Campbell is raising a red herring, Sawyer said, and his removal was solely related to concerns over the nature of his firm.
“The issues he raised about the future of the port seem neither here nor there,” he said.
No further changes are anticipated on the SPA board or any other state board populated by appointees of the governor, Sawyer said.
Sanford has nominated S. Richard Hagins, a retired U.S. Navy commander and chief executive of Universal Supplies and Services Inc. in Simpsonville, to serve as Carroll’s replacement.
Though Hagins’ nomination ultimately has to be approved by the state Senate, Sanford has named him to an interim appointment for now, Sawyer said.
“It’s a political firestorm, the situation we’re in now,” Campbell said. “You have to have a thick skin to be around politics. Don’t you think that if I had truly done something wrong, I’d be trying to stay below the radar screen? I’m simply standing by my beliefs.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@setcommedia.com.
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