By Bill Davis | If the Senate approves Catherine Heigel as the next executive director of the sprawling Department of Health and Environmental Control later this session, she will have travelled a path more and more agency heads in state government seem to be taking: from regulated to regulator.
Heigel, appointed last week by the DHEC board and subject to approval by Gov. Nikki Haley and the S.C. Senate, was previously the president of Duke Power of South Carolina. Its parent company, Duke Energy, this week announced it would dig up 4 million tons of waste from a Hartsville coal ash retention pond that reportedly was releasing toxins into a nearby lake.
Heigel is also a member of the state board that oversees Santee Cooper and is a former trustee of the state chapter of the Nature Conservancy. She is currently an attorney and “corporate strategies officer” in the Upstate office of a regional tax, accounting and consulting firm.
Statehouse Report could not reach Heigel for comment. Two DHEC officials said she wouldn’t be available for comment through the agency until after she has been officially appointed
Heigel’s nomination by the agency’s board developed after the governor’s choice, former state agency bigwig Eleanor Kitzman, removed her name from consideration in the face of mounting resistance within the General Assembly. In response, DHEC held a new hiring process, accepting close to 100 applicants, including one from Jenny Sanford, the former first lady of South Carolina.
Fox guarding the henhouse?
Sue Berkowitz, director of the state’s Appleseed Legal Justice Center, which advocates for the “little guy,” said she was in no way surprised that someone with such close ties to the “big guy” would be appointed. For Berkowitz, the whole thing looks like the fox is being invited into the henhouse.
Given half a second, Berkowitz will rattle of a short list of recent cabinet members who came from “industry” backgrounds. For example, Cheryl Stanton, who became head of Employment and Workforce in 2013, was a labor attorney in private practice and public service.
According to Berkowitz, the path is most worn between industry and the state Department of Insurance where four executive directors were insurance professionals prior to taking office:
- Ray Farmer, the current head, was most recently a lobbyist for the industry before taking office during the Haley tenure.
- David Black, who was replaced by Farmer, had been the president of an insurance company for 25 years before taking the office and then later resigning without comment.
- One of Black’s predecessors, former state Sen. Scott Richardson, was an Allstate broker before then-Gov. Mark Sanford named him to replace Kitzman.
- And one of Richardson’s predecessors, Ernst Csiszar, had been a national insurance company head before taking office during Gov. David Beasley’s tenure.
“Look at me, I’m the perfect example of what [Berkowitz] is talking about,” said Csiszar, taking a break from a regional insurance meeting Friday in Charleston. “I went from being an association president to a lobbyist to a regulator.”
Richardson, working in insurance again, said Friday he “understands” Berkowitz’s concerns, but added it would be folly to look outside the industry for leadership.
“You want somebody who knows something about it, or your could go with somebody who is blind, with the noble thought that they would not be subject to passing out favors,” said Richardson.
Richardson said he spent some of his time in the Senate as part of the work in the legislature to clean up the appointment process for the Public Service Commission. He deemed the commission as being the biggest “old boy network” in the state, making hundred-million dollar decisions without any real knowledge in the area.
Confirmation will boil down to trust
With Heigel, Richardson said it would boil down for the senators will be an “issue of personal integrity – if they don’t trust her, then they shouldn’t vote for her.”
Heigel’s name has already engendered trust in the conservation community.
Ann Timberlake, executive director of the environmental watchdog Conservation Voters of South Carolina, said she was pleased with the application process and the final name.
While she expects a “robust discussion” during Heigel’s confirmation hearings in the Senate, Timberlake added Heigel’s dedication to the environment in the past was important to her and the CVSC.
State Sen. Chip Campsen (R-Charleston), chair of the Fish, Game and Forestry Committee, said the “perfect” candidate to head DHEC doesn’t exist.
“You’d need someone who was a medical doctor, an environmental engineer, with a doctorate in public health, and a lawyer all rolled into one,” said Campsen.
Csiszar said because of its size and scope of work, what DHEC needed the most is a director with management skills.
On the other side of the aisle, state Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg) said he already supported Heigel’s nomination, having worked with her in past state issues and found her to be competent and hard working.
State Sen. Darrell Jackson (D-Hopkins), who serves on Medical Affairs, said Heigel “may be the best we’re going to get.” But he didn’t sound like he was giving her a compliment when he added “… with Haley in office.”
A staff member at the Medical Affairs Committee in the Senate, which has first crack at vetting Heigel, said there is no calendar date for the first hearing as the committee is still waiting for paperwork from Gov. Nikki Haley’s office.
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