Harvey Peeler

The S.C. Senate passed its own plan to reform the state’s troubled Employment Security Commission, after hammering out a compromise over the governor’s control of the new agency.

The Senate had struggled to reconcile differing views on whether the new Department of Workforce would be part of the governor’s Cabinet, with some leery of adding to the authority of the executive branch.

The Legislature, according to Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, needs to keep some oversight of the new agency, which will combine ESC functions with some now housed in the Commerce Department.

“We need checks and balances,” Knotts said.

nder a compromise crafted to bridge the gap, a panel of nine — six from the Legislature and three picked by the governor — would vet nominees for executive director of the new agency and recommend them to the governor. The panel would use merit criteria to come to its selection. If the governor rejected those nominees, the panel would be required to submit others.

The governor would have the power to remove the appointee at will, which has been called vital by Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, and other advocates of greater gubernatorial oversight of the new department.

Under the Senate bill, Gov. Mark Sanford would appoint an interim director of the new agency, while an appointment to a full term would fall to his successor. The current commission, which have been a target of intense criticism, would be disbanded, and its replacement would not oversee the agency, but only hear appeals of rulings. The three current commissioners would be eligible to seek positions on the new panel, which senators have vowed will no longer pay more than $100,000 per year.

The House already has passed its own version of ESC reform. The two bills likely will be reconciled in a conference committee.

The push to revamp the ESC continues to show momentum in the Legislature. Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, used the Senate podium to lambast the performance of the three current commissioners, saying that he had warned one of them last April that the agency needed a thorough housecleaning with a Legislative Audit Council report looming. That report, McConnell said, demonstrated that the problems at the agency had not been fixed.

“Every day we get a surprise” from the agency, he said.

On Tuesday, the Senate rejected a push by Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, to require random drug testing of some new applicants for unemployment. Thomas had argued that random testing would demonstrate the extent of the drug problem among the state’s unemployed, but other members of the Senate said the idea could not gain federal approval.

Columbia Regional Business News