Gov. Mark Sanford has spent thousands shuttling his family on personal trips – from amusement parks to sporting events – aboard the state-owned King Air 350 turbo prop jet. Anna Mitchell/Staff
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The life and turbulent times of Governor Mark Sanford

UPDATE The scrutiny continues amid discoveries of misuse of the state's King Air turbo prop

by Anna B. Mitchell

Published: Aug. 13, 2009

Click here for a breakdown of how the state plane has been used

  Click here to view flights during which the state plane flew without passengers

In 264 flights since he took office in January 2003, Gov. Mark Sanford used state-owned aircraft on many occasions for personal use, racking up thousands of dollars in charges to the Office of the Governor, a Journal review has found.

Most revealing is the First Family’s annual ritual at Thanksgiving since the governor took office. With the exception of 2007, South Carolina’s nine-seater King Air 350 has been fetched to Savannah every Sunday after Thanksgiving to pick up the family of six and bring them back to Columbia.

Sanford’s mother lives in nearby Beaufort.

Total cost of those flights: $5,645.84. The cost of sending the empty plane to the coast was almost $3,000.

On May 7, 2005, the state turboprop was dispatched to Charleston to pick up Jenny Sanford and her four sons and take them to Darlington. The annual NASCAR race at Darlington took place that day.

On May 9, 2008, the turboprop took Mrs. Sanford and her son Blake to Myrtle Beach for the grand opening of the Hard Rock Park. The cost of the flight: $1,320.

A May 31, 2008, flight took Sanford and his sons Landon and Marshall to Furman University to see President George Bush give a commencement address. The cost of the flight – which started in Columbia but returned the Sanfords to their home in Charleston – was $1,540.

The governor also has flown 34 times on a Department of Natural Resources four-seater plane. This agency does not charge the Governor’s Office for use of the plane and twice piggybacked the governor’s flights with DNR business – looking for a drowning victim in the Beaufort River and cruising along the coast to enforce shrimping laws.

Outspoken Sanford foe, Democratic Sen. John Land, said Sanford’s claims of being a spendthrift have proven much exaggerated.

“I wish the press had looked into Sanford before he was elected,” Land said. “He was a fraud then, and he’s a fraud now. It should have been brought out a long time ago that he’s not what he claims to be.”

Sanford has long been depicted as frugal. He slept on a cot in his office when he was a congressman and his family was living in South Carolina and has been known to ask staffers to use both sides of Post-It notes.

Land stopped short of calling for a full investigation with subpoena power over the governor. The Manning-based senator is a member of the same finance subcommittee that Greenville Sen. David Thomas chairs. Thomas has been conducting his own investigation into whether the governor used state assets for personal use.

Sanford has come under increased scrutiny since he revealed in late June that he has been engaged in a year-long sexual relationship with a woman in Argentina. At least one of his encounters with her was during a state-paid trip to South America.

Last week, Sanford’s wife, Jenny, and four sons moved out of the Governor’s Mansion after the family returned from a two-week vacation in Europe.

“I think it needs to be investigated, but only if the Senate Finance Committee through its chairman approves and gives subpoena power,” Land said. “I don’t think it should be one subcommittee or one person doing this.”

Sanford has flown in several state-owned aircraft but primarily the King Air turboprop kept by the state’s Division of Aeronautics. That aircraft requires two pilots and charges $1,100 an hour to any government agency that uses it. Only legislators, whose budget includes payment to the division, aren’t charged.

Pilot Hugh Tuttle said any state agency that wants to use the plane can sign up on a first-come, first-served basis.

“One person signs for the plane, and we don’t ask any questions,” Tuttle said.

He described the governor as relatively “cheap” compared to previous governors.

Land said he has no argument with a governor using an airplane as often as he likes so long as it brings more jobs and prosperity to the state.

“Governors before Sanford were busy people; they were all about improving South Carolina,” Land said. “Whatever travel he’s done was a waste. It’s just that simple.”

Former Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat from Lancaster who served the state from 1999 until 2003, along with his predecessor David Beasley, a Darlington Republican who served one term as governor from 1995 until 1999, have both been criticized by the Sanford camp for using state aircraft more than he did during his first term in office.

Hodges said Wednesday when he used state aircraft it was for legitimate purposes.

“I never flew to Lancaster,” he said. “I always drove. And I certainly didn’t fly anywhere to get a haircut. The state plane was never designed for personal use.”

Hodges said his family was with him on board state aircraft fewer than 10 times, and every one of those trips involved state business.

“It was when we went to the National Governor’s Association meetings, because the activities during those summer sessions are family-oriented,” he said. “They always plan special activities for spouses and children.”

Hodges said he understood having dinner with a friend before returning home after a day of conducting state business elsewhere, but using the plane purely for personal or political business is clearly a misuse, he said.

“I’ve tried to avoid getting into a back and forth situation with the governor,” Hodges said Wednesday. “But when you look at what the unemployment rate was while I was governor, and when you look at job creation and financial investment in the state while I was in office, I think it is pretty clear the voters got a better bargain with Jim Hodges.”

Nearly one in six flights Sanford took on the state’s King Air turboprop included one of his four sons. That is, flight logs indicate Blake, Bolton, Landon or Marshall Sanford took part in 35 flights on the state plane since 2003.

And on 31 occasions, an extra leg was added to state flights to pick the governor up from or drop him off to an airport near his family’s home in Sullivan’s Island – usually over the summer.

None of the state’s other constitutional officers took their children or a spouse on the state plane, according to the records.

John Crangle, the head of South Carolina Common Cause, said the governor’s decision to fly first class on commercial flights while his staff is in coach reveals an “outrageous narcissism.”

The governor’s decision to fly first class was uncovered when the Department of Commerce released expense documents on his trip to South America.

“If he did it once, this type behavior is usually not an aberration,” Crangle said. “It’s usually a pattern or practice. They tend not to do it just once but on epidemic level.”

Rules over the use of state planes – which at one time included seven aircraft at the Division of Aeronautics – have been tightened since a scandal in the 1980s revealed rampant personal use of the planes.

“I don’t know how strictly you can regulate that,” Land said. “A reliable state official knows what’s state business and what’s not. You don’t need to convene a panel to figure that out.”

Thirty-one legislators have used the King Air turboprop since Sanford took office in 2003. They flew for a total of $228,000 in billable hours combined – $154,000 less than the governor.

The Department of Commerce’s staff flew for a total of $425,276 worth of flight hours since 2003 – usually flying unnamed passengers to sites around the state. All other state agencies combined flew for a total of $182,000 worth of flight hours.

Thomas told the Journal he expects to reveal the results of his own analysis soon. He said if individuals in the governor’s office and state agencies cooperate, subpoena power would be unnecessary. Thomas heads up the subcommittee that overseas the budgets of constitutional officers such as the governor.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, who heads up the full Senate Finance Committee, must decide whether to give Thomas the power to compel people to testify. He has not yet granted Thomas that power.

“I’d have to report that individual X was uncooperative, refused to come to a subcommittee meeting or if a certain agency refused to submit certain information,” Thomas said. “I would have to see then if the (finance committee) chairman wants to give my subcommittee subpoena power.”

April M. Silvaggio also contributed to this report.

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Stan Welch  - good job   |75.137.124.xxx |2009-08-24 01:35:21 Anna Mitchell is hands down one of the best print journalists in the Upstate. Thorough, concise,with a nice style. The Journal is luckyto have her. Anderson County was unlucky to lose her. Reply

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