Bill would reform South Carolina electric co-ops

COLUMBIA (AP) - A new bill at the Statehouse would allow a state watchdog agency to review South Carolina's electric cooperatives for the first time.

The bill would allow the Office of Regulatory Staff to audit a co-op and let them know if they were spending their money properly and following state law. The agency could take concerns to the Public Service Commission, which could weigh in as well. Regulators couldn't change rates.

About 30 percent of South Carolina's residents - or about 1.5 million people - get power from the nearly two dozen co-ops in the state.

State Rep. Russell Ott said his bill was prompted after The State newspaper's reporting about Tri-County Electric co-op's board holding an excessive number of meetings that lasted just minutes to get paid $450 a pop and getting co-op workers to install power lines and do landscaping work for free.

"What we're trying to accomplish is just making sure these elected board members always know there's going to be a higher level of scrutiny. There's going to be multiple opportunities for people to look and be involved in the process, which was clearly lacking before," the Democrat from St. Matthews told The State.

The bill, which is scheduled to be heard in a House committee later this month, includes several other reforms.

The proposal would require co-ops to post how much their board is paid per meeting, their benefits and how much they spend on travel. It would also require co-ops notify customers about meetings 10 days in advance and publish minutes after meetings are finished.

Co-ops would have to allow early voting in boar elections and keep polls open at least four hours on election day. Co-op directors could not fill vacancies on boards by themselves, hopefully ending a practice of some co-ops of appointing relatives to replace board members.

Co-op directors would be banned from hiring their own relatives or from running a co-op where they also worked as a contractor or had another business relationship.

Many co-ops have told lawmakers they back the bill, said Republican Rep. Gary Clary of Central.

"It's an excellent sign," Clary said. "They realized they needed to take a closer look at the way things are being done, that so much of it was being done behind closed doors and without proper notice and without real transparency."