Judge stops Gov. McMaster from firing Santee Cooper chief for 10 days

An S.C. circuit judge on Friday afternoon issued a 10-day restraining order stopping Gov. Henry McMaster from firing Santee Cooper board Chairman Leighton Lord.

Judge Casey Manning of Columbia issued the order stopping McMaster from removing Lord from office after Lord filed a motion seeking an appeal of McMaster’s order to fire him.

In his order, Manning said he will hold a hearing within 10 days, or in any case, not later than Jan. 3.

Earlier this month, McMaster said he would fire Lord by Dec. 18 unless Lord stepped down on his own.

Santee Cooper is a state-owned electric utility with more than 700,000 customers around the state.

Under the law, McMaster has the authority to hire and fire the board chairman, but he has to have cause to fire him. Lord says McMaster doesn’t have a valid cause and is firing him solely because Lord is backing another candidate in next year’s governor’s race.

McMaster has said Lord failed to provide him with information he asked for concerning the failed multibillion-dollar V.C. Summer nuclear project in Fairfield County. McMaster also alleges that the state-owned utility, under Lord’s leadership, failed to address critical problems with the design, engineering and construction of the two nuclear reactors.

Santee Cooper was a junior partner in the venture, which was led by SCANA, a publicly traded electric utility that has more than 1 million customers. Both utilities have been hit with multiple lawsuits since the nuclear project went belly-up last summer.

Brian Symmes, a governor’s spokesman, said, “It’s no surprise that Mr. Lord was granted the temporary injunction – Gov. McMaster will move forward with removing him as chairman as soon as possible. Though, we certainly hope Mr. Lord understands just how bad his actions must look to the ratepayers who continue to be affected by Santee Cooper’s mismanagement of the V.C. Summer project.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Judge stops Gov. McMaster from firing Santee Cooper chief for 10 days."