South Carolina State Senators Advance DHEC Director Nominee

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's choice to lead the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) cleared an important hurdle Thursday afternoon, when a state Senate committee voted to confirm Catherine Templeton as DHEC's new commissioner.
The vote was 13-0, with three senators abstaining, and came after hours of intense questioning by Democrats on the panel, who wonder whether Templeton has the qualifications needed to run such a large and complex agency. Templeton is a lawyer who's currently serving as the director of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

State Senator Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, noted that she has no background, experience or training in health or environmental issues and asked her what he should say to people in his district. "I've gotten calls from constituents who said, 'Senator, how can you support someone who does not come with the background for the job, especially when there are so many more eminently-qualified people?'" DHEC's board chose her over more than 300 other applicants.

Templeton said the position does not require a specialist in any one area of health or the environment, especially since the agency deals with so many areas, but needs an effective manager. "I think that your constituents can rest easy in the fact that I respect the employees at DHEC and their expertise, that I have the energy to go do what's best for the state," she said.

State Senator Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, also grilled her on her background and experience.

He asked her, "This General Assembly, whether people or like it or not, unanimously just publicly rebuked the DHEC board's decision on Savannah River. And a lot of what they told us when they came before us is, 'We relied on staff. We relied on staff.' And what I hear you saying is, 'I'm going to rely on staff.' And I guess what the question is, without any public health background yourself, how are you going to know if the staff is misleading you?"

The South Carolina House of Representatives and South Carolina Senate passed a resolution to undo DHEC's controversial decision to allow dredging in the Savannah River to deepen Savannah's port, which critics say helps Georgia at South Carolina's expense. DHEC had been against the permit, but the board reversed course after agreeing to hear from Georgia's governor, at the request of Governor Haley.

Templeton answered State Senator Hutto, "I think it's wonderful that my predecessors have had a public health background, but there's the whole environmental half as well. You've got to have somebody intelligent up there. And I think it's a great bonus to the state that I'm a lawyer. That entire agency is almost exclusively run by statutes and regs. I can go look at those."

State Senator Hutto and State Senator Joel Lourie, D-Columbia, also asked Templeton about her plans to remain in Mt. Pleasant, instead of moving to Columbia and working out of DHEC's headquarters. Lourie said, "I have some concerns about the Columbia thing. I mean I really do. I've run businesses my whole life and I kind of like to be, many times, the first there and the last to leave."

And Hutto asked her, "Where do you think your office will be as the DHEC commissioner, in Columbia or in Charleston?"

She answered, "I think I'll have a place to sit in both places. I think it will largely be behind my steering wheel. All 46 counties have got not just a health department but a number of different functions for DHEC. And one thing I told the board that I wanted to do, and they thought it was a good idea, was to go to all of the locations for DHEC, and you've got to be on the ground to understand."

Despite the grilling by Democratic senators, several of the Republicans on the panel praised her. State Senator Phillip Shoopman, R-Greer, said, "There was a question earlier made about management experience, but I think for the last year we've seen you in a trial run. You've been managing an agency at LLR. And from what I'm hearing from another member across this panel and other ones is that things have gotten better."

Now that the committee has voted to confirm her, the nomination goes to the full state Senate for a vote.