Sanford not surprised by port-sale breakup
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Last week's collapse of the Port of Port Royal deal came as no surprise to Gov. Mark Sanford, who said the debacle is indicative of what he uncovered during his research into the developer and the need to privatize aspects of state government.
Hilton Head Island developer David Staley and his financial partners this week backed out of a $26 million deal to buy the 316-acre port property, citing a lack of funds. The developer was supposed to have come up with $2 million to secure the deal by Monday. That deadline, which already had been extended twice, was missed.
Sanford, who in November abstained from the state Budget and Control Board's vote to sell the property to Staley and his Port Royal Harbour group, was widely criticized last month for relaying information about the developer to members of the S.C. State Ports Authority's board of directors.
The criticism led Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, to call for an investigation into Sanford, a stance he said Thursday wouldn't change despite the sale falling through.
"The fact that we're going to have to look for a new purchaser doesn't change what happened," Hutto said, adding that he expects the Senate's Transportation Committee to grill three ports board members, including vice chairman Bill Stern, when they go before the committee next month for confirmation of their reappointments. "They'll be under oath, and I'm sure they'll have to answer questions about what went on."
Hutto is not a member of the Transportation Committee.
But Sanford, who repeatedly has said he'd welcome an objective investigation, maintains he did nothing wrong and thinks last week's events support what he was trying to get across.
"This is a fella who wasn't experienced in large-scale, mixed-use development," the governor said Thursday of Staley. "But now you're going to experiment on your first deal? This is exactly what was uncovered when I did the due diligence, but I got widely criticized. It turns out all those suspicions that were raised when I did my due-diligence calls came to fruition."
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell last month said he didn't think a Senate investigation of Sanford would be appropriate.
Staley, owner of Main Street Realty in Hilton Head, was listed as a principal of Port Royal Harbour, which was formed Nov. 1.
Staley's company has built commercial and residential projects on Hilton Head and in Bluffton, Myrtle Beach and Sumter. He is a managing partner in the Old Carolina golf course and home development in Bluffton, which SunTrust Bank claimed last year had defaulted on a $3 million loan.
But Hutto, along with others in Columbia, have said Sanford's conversations with members of the port board went beyond business issues and bordered on personal attacks.
"What some of the e-mails suggest is that there's something completely different being told," he said.
Sanford also has been criticized for inserting himself into the port deal because Jim Chaffin, a Beaufort County developer who bid on the port land, contributed to Sanford's gubernatorial campaigns.
Chaffin and his wife, Betsy, donated a total of $8,850 to Sanford's 2002 and 2006 campaigns, according to The Associated Press.
But Sanford said there was nothing secretive about his inquiries and conversations. "There was no mystery," he said. "I've said 'here's who I called,' and I did it within the chain of command."
And while Sanford's role in the port deal likely will be brought up during Senate hearings, it distracts from the larger issue: Four years after the governor signed legislation calling for the port to be sold, it's still owned by the Ports Authority.
"In the world of private commerce, it wouldn't have taken you four years to get you where we've gotten," Sanford said. "At some point, time is money, and we really need to get on this and do so as expeditiously as possible. In this case time has cost us a lot."
And the delays likely will continue.
Although Ports Authority officials say they plan to seek out bidders willing to negotiate at the same $26 million to $27 million level, any buyer likely will want a new property assessment that will reflect a slowed real estate market.
"I think the Ports Authority's done a poor job in terms of executing the contract and getting the ball moving," said Beaufort County resident and former ports board member Glen Kilgore. "Here we are four years later still trying to dispose of it."
Sanford said by now, four years after his pen directed the Ports Authority to sell the defunct port, he "thought there'd be dirt moving."
"But I was naive to how slow the wheels of Columbia worked back then."