COLUMBIA, S.C. — House lawmakers gave key approval Wednesday to a bill which would restructure the University of South Carolina's Board of Trustees and get rid of all current members.
The vote comes one week after lawmakers grilled five incumbent board members on a multi-million dollar payout to a former coach, a secret trip involving a presidential search, and sexual harassment lawsuits.
"It just feels like a continuing, churning set of very volatile and toxic conditions," said State Representative Kirkman Finlay of Richland County, who sits on the committee responsible for approving college and university board members.
The bill cleared a key legislative deadline known as 'crossover day' when legislation not passed in its chamber becomes less likely to be signed into law.
Speaker Jay Lucas introduced the bill and requested it skip committee and head directly to the House floor Tuesday. Finlay said it was crucial for the bill to be fast tracked.
“While it feels like a long time, it's a complete restructure in 15 months,” said Finlay.
The bill reduces the number of members from 20 to 13 and kicks all trustees off the board by June 2023.
Under the bill, lawmakers would elect trustees based on South Carolina's seven U.S. House districts in addition to four at-large seats. Currently trustees are picked from the state’s 16 judicial districts.
Every 10 years congressional districts are rebalanced based on the Census. Finlay hopes this will create a board more "representative to our state".
Current Board members could run for the new seats, but would have to go through the entire vetting and election process all over again.
The governor would continue to choose his two at-large trustees, but could no longer choose to be chairman of the Board of Trustees.
At last months meeting, the committee refused to nominate current trustees for new terms.
After one more reading, the bill will go to the senate where it has bipartisan support.
“At some point you either fix your problem and if not, someone else is gonna fix it for you,” said Senator John Scott of Richland County .