If you want to understand the foundation of why South Carolina is so deeply and fundamentally messed up and can’t seem to move forward as a state you need look no further than a front page article in the January 9^th edition of The Greenville News. The article summarized a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling which stated that three current members of the state highway commission had served illegally because the law does not permit them to serve more than one term. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last year by Greenville businessman Ned Sloan.

The question of just how long highway commissioners may serve has been litigated for the last ten years. The article by Tim Smith points out that “The State Department of Transportation’s seven commissioners oversee one of the state’s largest agencies with a budget of $1 billion, 5,000 employees and responsibility for the nation’s fourth-largest state maintained road system.” Obviously a seat on the highway commission is highly coveted. The governor selects the chairman of the highway commission, while lawmakers from each congressional district select the remaining six commissioners. So…how does one go about getting an appointment to the highway commission? Does an appointment require prior experience as a highway contractor or a consumer advocate? Nah, it’s all about who you know or who you are related to, after all this is South Carolina, home of the good ole boy network.

One of the three commissioners targeted by the lawsuit, John Truluck of Lake City, reportedly left the board last year after his second term expired. The second commissioner John Hardee, of Columbia is the son-in-law of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman. The third commissioner, Bob Harrell is the father of House Speaker Bobby Harrell. Harrell Sr. tells the Greenville News, “Effectively, I think this ruling terminates my position, effective today.” DOT Chairman Tee Hooper doesn’t seem quite so sure, “I don’t know what happens from here.”

South Carolina power brokers have proven time after time that they are willing to fight to the death to hold on to the reins of power. They will spend tens of thousands or even millions of dollars arguing arcane points of law, year after year to the detriment of our state and its citizens to maintain their grasp on the power structure of the state which essentially excludes minorities, women and the working class. Another fine example of this behavior can be found by watching the documentary “Corridors of Shame,” which documents the incredibly unfair taxation and educational funding of public schools in South Carolina. This system has resulted in rural schools that are literally falling apart, with open sewage running through the halls. Despite numerous court rulings calling for reform, state lawmakers have repeatedly chosen to continue litigation rather than cooperate and come up with a more equitable educational funding system which could result in reform and new and improved educational facilities for all children in our state.

The crux of the highway commission lawsuit was term limits. Essentially the law regarding term limits for the highway commission reads “no county shall have a commissioner for more than one consecutive term.” The law defines a term as four years and goes on to say that commissioners can only serve beyond their term for a maximum of six months.

Tim Smith reports that the commissioners argued that because the law used the word “consecutive” they were allowed to serve more than one term. South Carolina’s highest court took umbrage with this trifling argument. Justice Jean Waller writes such an interpretation would produce an “absurd result.”

The Greenville News further reports that two previous opinions about DOT commissioners terms issued by the State Attorney General’s office in the 1990’s reached the same conclusion as the South Carolina Supreme Court reached on Monday. I wonder how long it will take Tee Hooper, John Hardee and the rest of the DOT Board to figure out what one consecutive term means?

This story is a near perfect illustration of the patriarchal society that still exists in South Carolina. Television news cameras panned across the floor of the South Carolina State House this week as they opened their legislative session. There was a virtual sea of white male faces, a tiny clutch of black  males. I saw no females, no Hispanics and no other minorities represented in that chamber. South Carolina’s House of Representatives, Senate and Boards and Commissions are all dominated by white males. The seats of power are occupied by moneyed, established families of the old south with political, social and business connections that they wield to their benefit. These powerful white males appoint their white male relatives, friends and or business associates to the most influential boards and commissions where they proceed to serve as long as they can get away with or until they die or decide to retire.

Woe to the person who would dare to look up laws then force legislators to abide by the rules put in place, which certainly don’t apply to them or their kind. Thank heaven for outside agitators like Ned Sloan who have the money and the time to file suit and advocate on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina, the regular folks back here at home.

There’s a reason the boards and commissions system in South Carolina is such a mystery to most folks. That’s the way the power brokers want it. They don’t want you to know about openings on those boards. There attitude seems to be, “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, you let us take care of that.” The current system is racist, incestuous, patriarchal and tightly controlled.

The only way that South Carolina will be able to move forward and make progress on some very difficult issues like health insurance for the working poor, HIV/AIDS infection rates, controlled growth, urban sprawl, poverty, substance abuse and treatment and corrections reform is if and when all of the citizens in our state have a voice and are represented in the political process.