State Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, took to the podium of the state Senate for four hours Wednesday in an effort to halt the nomination of Gov. Nikki Haley’s choice to head the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“I hope the public is listening,” Leventis said as he hit the three-hour mark. “I hope they’re listening and questioning whether this is the correct way to do business. I don’t think it is.”
At issue is the nomination of Catherine Templeton, 41, the current director of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, who was handpicked by Haley to run the larger, more complicated health and environment agency after its longtime director, Earl Hunter, abruptly announced his retirement.
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Democrats have criticized Templeton’s lack of experience in health and the environment, and her unwillingness to move to Columbia from her home in Mount Pleasant. Templeton said she will work out of the agency’s North Charleston office, instead of its Columbia headquarters.
On the Senate floor, Leventis said more than 200 applications were submitted for the job, which pays up to $184,000 a year. “Two hundred applications, and no one was selected. Then someone who did not seek the job, did not want the job, at least at the onset, gets it.”
The lameduck Democrat, who has said he will not seek re-election, also said Republican Haley should define what she means when she says she wants the state’s environmental agency to be more “business friendly.”
Templeton, whose background is as a labor law attorney, has said she is up to overseeing the agency’s 4,500 workers, who regulate tattoo parlors, manage public health initiatives, test water for contamination, regulate pollution discharge and oversee thousands of health and environmental regulations.
Senators adjourned at 7:20 p.m. Wednesday without voting on Templeton’s nomination. They will convene today with Leventis still holding the floor.
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