Gov. Haley refusing to dump Rhodes.
Despite a call by several senators for Gov. Nikki Haley to remove Caroline Rhodes as chair of the Department of Natural Resources Board, the governor is standing by her chairwoman – at least for now.
Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg) submitted a resolution calling for Rhodes’ ouster as DNR Board chair and asking the state attorney general to determine if prosecution is warranted because he and other senators believe Rhodes lied when testifying in front of a Senate panel earlier this year.The resolution, which was referred to the Senate’s Fish, Game and Forestry Committee, charges that in a hearing conducted by the same committee concerning allegations of wrongdoing by the DNR Board related to the retirement of SCDNR director John Frampton, Rhodes gave false testimony about directions she gave Frampton on dealing with the Savannah River port project.
The resolution charges that Rhodes testified she gave no mandate for the SCDNR staff to abstain from participating in all matters relating to the Savannah River dredging project.
In that hearing, Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden), pressed Rhodes about whether she directed Frampton to tell his staff not to talk about the port issue.
“I didn’t direct Mr. Frampton to do anything about it,” Rhodes said.
However, a search of records pertaining to how Frampton’s retirement was handled by the Board turned up a Dec. 7, 2011, email from Frampton to the agency’s professional staff in which he relayed a mandate from Rhodes prohibiting the staff from attending the Savannah River Maritime Commission Meeting on Dec. 9.
The resolution calls for Rhodes’ censure for official misconduct and abuse of power in office; senators say state law requires SCDNR to provide professional staff assistant to the Maritime Commission and a directive to the contrary is a violation of state law.
SCDNR’s involvement in the port issue is critical, according to legislators, because legislation passed in 2007 gave the authority to deal with dredging in the river along the border with Georgia to the Maritime Commission. However, after Haley replaced the entire Department of Health and Environmental Control Board, that agency, which had denied permits for the $600 million port project in Savannah, did an about-face and issued the permits, giving Georgia the green light for port expansion.
This past week, five conservation groups petitioned the S.C. Supreme Court to determine of those permits were legal, saying DHEC did not have the authority to issue them since that authority had been granted to the Maritime Commission.
The petition was filed by the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, the Savannah Riverkeeper, the S.C. Wildlife Federation and the Conservation Voters of South Carolina. The Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit legal service, is handling the case for environmentalists.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, chair of the Senate Fish, Game and Forestry Committee, said he will schedule a meeting on the Rhodes resolution quickly.
Haley said she will not fire Rhodes, whose 4-year term on the board expires in July 2014; she praised the chairwoman for doing a good job since she appointed her to the chair. Rhodes, a Charleston businesswoman, was one of three holdover appointments to the DNR Board from the administration of Gov. Mark Sanford.
However, Haley did not guarantee Rhodes will remain as board Chairwoman.
“We will probably see a new chair of DNR, but not because she has not done a good job,” Haley said.
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