Kevin Dietrich

The Nerve

South Carolinians certainly do love their boards and commissions.

How else do you explain the fact that the Palmetto State has approximately 300 statewide supervising bodies, according to the Governor’s Office, overseeing everything from the University of South Carolina system to real estate appraisers, from the S.C. State Ports Authority to Charleston’s Old Exchange Building?

There are literally thousands of positions on South Carolina boards and commissions, and because state law prohibits an individual from serving on more than one board at time, that means there is a spot for better than one out of every 2,000 adults who reside in the state.

The huge number requires a taxing amount of work in finding, vetting, naming and reporting eligible candidates, one of the reasons Gov. Mark Sanford has consistently advocated for restructuring of state government.

“We’ve repeatedly made the case that South Carolina’s state government is far too convoluted and disjointed – overrun by a confusing mesh of boards, agencies and other organizations (many dating back to the 1895 Ben Tillman Constitution) that tends to lack clear lines of authority and accountability,” spokesman Ben Fox said. “South Carolina state government will find it that much harder to move into the next century as long it retains, and the status quo powers protect, this antiquated governance model.”

Some entities, such as the State Board of Education, the S.C. Arts Commission and the Commission for Minority Affairs, are well known, but there are plenty of lesser-known supervising bodies. They include:

Read More