Senators vote 13-0 to advance choice for DHEC director

COLUMBIA -- The leader of South Carolina's labor agency took a step closer Thursday to taking the helm of the state's public health and environmental control agency, as senators waved away concerns about her lack of experience in those fields.

The Senate Medical Affairs Committee voted 13-0 to advance the confirmation of Catherine Templeton to the Senate floor. Three senators abstained.

The vote followed two meetings in which senators grilled Templeton about her background, her refusal to live full-time in Columbia and layoffs at the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in her year there.

Haley chose Templeton, 41, to lead LLR because of her legal specialty in fighting unions. Haley gave her blessing for the new role. Templeton was chosen from among nearly 300 candidates by a board composed of Haley appointees.

"She's an amazing director," Haley said. "We had corruption and problems at LLR. I asked her to go in and clean house. I thought it would take her six months. It took her 60 days. I've never seen a harder, more focused worker. DHEC is blessed to have her."

Sen. Brad Hutto asked a series of questions about Templeton's credentials, saying her qualifications did not meet the job description put out by the agency's board last fall. And he noted those were less than the minimum required when retired Commissioner Earl Hunter applied in 2007, which called for a master's degree in public health.

Templeton earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wofford and a law degree from the University of South Carolina. She told senators the Department of Health and Environmental Control needs a skilled manager, not a health or environmental specialist, who can coordinate the experts who work for the agency and cut through bureaucracy to provide answers more quickly.

She said she will be in Columbia whenever necessary and always available but will not uproot her three young children from their home in Mount Pleasant.

Others questioned why she would want the job leading a massive, unwieldy agency of more than 3,600 employees, with a vast array of responsibilities. By contrast, LLR has fewer than 400.

Templeton said she's ready to take on the challenge.

"I'm excited about DHEC. LLR's a wonderful agency. The opportunity, however, to go to an agency and help an agency that affects the very air we breathe and water we drink and public health is exciting to me. I am all in," she said.

She choked up as she mentioned her children: "The most important thing for me is to protect their future. ... DHEC creates the opportunity for me to have a real impact on them on a daily basis."

Many senators praised her job at LLR, noting they frequently received complaints from constituents about the agency before her arrival, but don't anymore.

Questioned why roughly a quarter of LLR's staff was let go, Templeton said the agency was swollen and many of those laid off were contract and "temporary" employees who had been there a long time. She said she never intended to fire people, but they weren't needed.

She assured senators she has no intention of firing DHEC employees. The agency lost 550 employees to budget cuts between 2008 and 2010. Templeton said the biggest challenge at DHEC is keeping the experts who could be making a lot more money in the private sector.

Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, said senators should be celebrating her job at LLR, as an example of the way to cut waste in government.

"We've got LLR that's in the ditch. Now we have a new LLR that's functioning well with fewer people. Gentlemen, isn't that what we're here for?" he said to applause from a packed audience.