The Governor’s Alanis Morrisette Moment
Channeling Alanis Morrisette, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford used the state airplane Friday to travel across the state to a press conference …. where he bragged about how little he has used the state airplane.
“Isn’t it ironic? Don’tcha think?”
According to public flight data obtained by FITS, “Palmetto One” flew Sanford round-trip from Columbia to Conway, S.C. for Friday’s press conference and a previously scheduled Lion’s Club meeting. It was his first flight (that we know of) aboard the plane since he was accused of using it improperly for personal and political purposes.
It’s unclear what necessitated Sanford’s use of the plane, as these were the only two events on his governor’s public schedule for the day.
Cue, Alanis …
Comments
By anonymous on August 29th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Copy of Complaint Against Mark Sanford
http://media.charleston.net/2009/pdf/scethics_082809.pdf
By anonymous on August 29th, 2009 at 4:22 am
proviso 89.27.
State Owned Aircraft – Maintenance Logs)
Each agency having in its custody one or more aircraft shall maintain a continuing log on all flights, which in order to promote accountability and transparency shall be open posted online for public inspection.
Any and all aircraft owned or operated by agencies of the State Government shall be used only for official business. The Division of Aeronautics and other agencies owning and operating aircraft may furnish transportation to the Governor, Constitutional Officers, members of the General Assembly, members of state boards, commissions, and agencies and their invitees for official business only;
no member of the General Assembly, no member of a state board, commission, or committee, and no state official shall use any aircraft of the Division of Aeronautics unless the member or official files within forty-eight hours after the time of departure of the flight with the Division of Aeronautics a sworn statement certifying and describing the official nature of his trip;
and no member of the General Assembly, no member of a state board, commission or committee, and no state official shall be furnished air transportation by a state agency other than the Division of Aeronautics unless such agency prepares and maintains in its files a sworn statement from the highest ranking official of the agency certifying that the member’s or state official’s trip was in conjunction with the official business of the agency.
Official business shall not include routine transportation to and from meetings of the General Assembly or committee meetings for which mileage is authorized. All logs shall be signed by the parties using the flight and the signatures shall be maintained as part of the permanent record of any agency.
All passengers shall be listed on the flight log by their legal name; passengers flying with an appropriate official of SLED or the Division of State Development whose confidentiality must, in the opinion of SLED or the division, be protected shall be listed in writing on the flight log as “Confidential Passenger SLED or the Division of State Development (strike one)” and the appropriate official of SLED or the division shall certify to the agency operating the aircraft the necessity for such confidentiality.
By anonymous on August 29th, 2009 at 4:42 am
SECTION 8-13-700. Use of official position or office for financial gain; disclosure of potential conflict of interest.
SECTION 8-13-765. Use of government personnel or facilities for campaign purposes;
(A) No person may use government personnel, equipment, materials, or an office building in an election campaign.
SECTION 8-13-1346. Use of public funds, property, or time to influence election prohibited;
(A) A person may not use or authorize the use of public funds, property, or time to influence the outcome of an election.
SECTION 8-13-1348. Use of campaign funds for personal expenses; certain expenditures to be in writing; expenditures not to exceed fair market value; petty cash funds.
(A) No public official may use campaign funds to defray personal expenses which are unrelated to the campaign or the office if the candidate is an officeholder nor may these funds be converted to personal use.
(C) An expenditure of more than twenty-five dollars must be made by a written instrument drawn upon the campaign account containing the name of the candidate or committee and the name of the recipient. Expenditures of twenty-five dollars or less that are not made by a written instrument containing the name of the candidate or committee and the name of the recipient must be accounted for by a written receipt or written record.
(D) An expenditure may not be made that is clearly in excess of the fair market value of services, materials, facilities, or other things of value received in exchange.
(E) A candidate or a duly authorized officer of a committee may not withdraw more than one hundred dollars from the campaign account to establish or replenish a petty cash fund for the candidate or committee at any time, and at no time may the fund exceed one hundred dollars. Expenditures from the petty cash fund may be made only for office supplies, food, transportation expenses, and other necessities and may not exceed twenty-five dollars for each expenditure.
By stimulus on August 29th, 2009 at 9:09 am
the stimulus money can help pay for the plane use? or is it plain use?
By Todd on August 29th, 2009 at 10:09 am
It’s Saturday morning: Do you know where your governor is?
By Independent Voter on August 29th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Todd,
Nope. He’s probably unsure himself, as it’s so apparent he’s lost his mind.
By Kid Charlemagne on August 29th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Factor Sanford out of the whole airplane / flights debate for a minute and let’s consider this:
What kind of state requires its chief executive to fly to China in coach? What impression does that make upon the digniteries and captains of industry he is scheduled to meet?
Also, legislators who are so concerned about the cost of seat upgrades for the chief executive routinely take 15 minutes or less in committee to pass agency budgets in the millions of dollars. Most are increased and passed with only cursory questions from budget writers.
Seems the outrage over spending is somewhat misplaced, but this is SC, of course. As was said of us over 150 years ago – “too small to be a republic, too large to be an insane asylum.”
By Mab on August 29th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Alanis 2012! & 2010!
By Mab on August 29th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
The best part about all of this for South Carolina is that we haven’t had a governor for quite some time.
Now, we don’t have a president, either. Unless you believe Barry Kumbaya Obama is really eligible.
For the first time since the Civil War, this state is a nose ahead of everyone else. We are experienced in being leaderless and need to play this golden hand, people!!!
By Sandy on August 29th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Love the parallelism of Alanis Morissette’s Ironic song to what is hpapening to Mark Sanford right now.
Now why was he rushing back to Columbia anyhow? Was he meeting up with his Argentine lover who as pundits tell is ‘holed’ up in someone’s air raid shelter only to appear after darkness? Sounds like a cheap night lady of pleasure to me. But hey if that makes Mark Sanford happy and virile specially in these stressful period of his life, go for it.
Life indeed is full of ironies.
By Mab on August 29th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
There is plenty of *homegrown* to relieve his stress, Sandy. Plenty. Trust me.
By Liberty For Me on August 29th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Saint Peter: “I don’t care how drunk you were, Ted, it’s still murder!”
By Mike on August 29th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Kid Charlemagne hit it- the plane thing is way overdone, both the King Air and the seats. Do we really want our Governor (even the ones we don’t like) zipping around the state in a Chevy Malibu with two fat SLED agents packed into the front seats? Arriving in China looking like he slept on a steam grate outside the Statehouse? This is all just schadenfreude induced by the intense dislike Sanford has engendered with his bizarro behavior. He’s dead already and rapidly assuming room temp; when can we stop kicking the body?
By Sandy on August 29th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I trust you Mab.
But me thinks Mark until now prefers someone imported and quality tested from Argentina.
What was that saying again?
Once tasted always wanted?
By ? on August 29th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Kid Charlemagne:
Foreign dignitaries may think Hmmm…this guy really cares about the people more and being conservative with other people’s money (we here in America do like to know where our tax dollars go)…not to mention they may think Hmmm…he practices what he preaches and obeys laws he helped establish.
By Cooter Brown on August 29th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Wha’ the’ hell happened to that feller– Jest shows not t’ put yer trus’ in mens…. My oh, my! How da mitie hab fallen…
By Joe Bobby on August 29th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Kid,
I agree with you that the Governor should fly first or business class if available, primarily for security, but also because he is the state CEO.
However, no other Governor ever campaigned on doing away with these types of “perks”. Sanford ran on the idea of selling the state fleet, flying coach, employees bunking up, all the while he is out flying top ticket, staying solo at the Ritz, using the aircraft for personal reasons etc. And while I think the law should be re-examined as it pertains to the Governor’s office for the future, the simple fact is Mark Sanford broke the law, tried to blame it on others in the past, and ran a what is now “deception” campaign against these very things. He should without a doubt resign as the voters of this state can no longer trust him.
By anonymous on August 30th, 2009 at 5:00 am
South Carolina Aeronautics Commission
http://www.scaeronautics.com/flight.asp#division
Flight Reports
http://www.scaeronautics.com/flightlogs.asp
Flight Manifests
http://www.scaeronautics.com/FlightManifests.asp
By anonymous on August 30th, 2009 at 6:02 am
South Carolina Aeronautics Commission
King Air 350 – “Palmetto 1”
GOVERNOR’S OFFICE CHARGES:
2009 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $10,560.00
2009 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $9,350.00
2008 4th Quarter Flight Manifest $7,150.00
2008 3rd Quarter Flight Manifest $13,310.00
2008 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $27,500.00
2008 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $15,400.00
2007 4th Quarter Flight Manifest $9,790.00
2007 3rd Quarter Flight Manifest $15,620.00
2007 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $23,760.00
2007 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $20,240.00
2006 4th Quarter Flight Manifest $8,250.00
2006 3rd Quarter Flight Manifest $7,150.00
2006 2nd Quarter Flight Manifest $19,103.34
2006 1st Quarter Flight Manifest $33,733.30
Do the math. These are the charges that Mark Sanford has charged the State of South Carolina Taxpayers for just one airplane for the last two and a half years.
The charges do not include the cost of the other state airplanes that he has used, i.e. the smaller Cessna Planes owned by SCDNR.
Also, these charges do not include the all of the bogus commercial flights or the hundreds of flights that Sanford has taken on private aircraft many of which have never been reported. If you want to know where Mark Sanford has been the last six and a half years, well, he’s been living on an airplane.
Aditionally, we get the pleasure of paying for his legal defense fund, i.e. counsel to defend him for the misuse of state funds. We also have the pleasure of paying his lawyer to dig up dirt on previous governors and all the while, he’s still flying around the state for the sole purpose of holding press conferences. Talking about adding insult to injury.
What a freakin’ joke.
Flight Reports
http://www.scaeronautics.com/flightlogs.asp
South Carolina Aeronautics Commission
http://www.scaeronautics.com/flight.asp
*************************************
By calhoun fawls on August 30th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I fear this thing is going to end badly for Sanford and for SC. Earl Long of Louisiana comes to mind. He was a governor committed.
By Elmo on August 30th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Does anyone know why Sanford went to China in the first place? Did the trip accomplish anything for our State? The most important question is not how he flew there but why he flew there on the taxpayer dime?
We know the recent trip to the news conference was a waste of time and money. If he wanted to do a press conference he could have done it on youtube if he was really so cost conscious.
By Mike on August 30th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
We’re confusing two issues here. Sanford’s Quixotic ravings about doubling up hotel rooms, sleeping on cots, and avoiding air travel have always been wacky. In the real world, people expect the CEO of any large, professional organiztion to act like one. It’s only when politics gets involved that everyone starts pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Perfect recent example- the silliness that ensued when the hypocrites in Congress (home of the high-dollar Pelosi G5 express to the left coast) railed on the CEO’s of the big-3 automakers for flying corporate aircraft to DC for their inquisition. Sooooo, second time around? The former CEO of GM, who generally earned around $15 mil annually (although at the end the obvious problem with his stock options left him at around $3 mil) had to waste three or four days driving a freaking GM car to DC and back.
Even at $3 mil, the shareholders were paying Wagoner around $11,500 per day. At the real comp rate, it’s more like $57k per day. His performance as CEO is a separate issue, but his pay being what is was means the smart money would have been to spend the $7k on Jet A fuel and get his happy ass back to Detroit and back to work ASAP.
As a personal aside, even back when I was a federal official (and a low-level one, at that) regularly flying to the mideast, my team mates and I were allowed to fly business class whenever we were flying to a mission wherein we were expected to be “in the game” on the day we arrived. Rather than schedule an extra day, our travel office usually saw fit to cough up the $$$ for the biz-class seats because it was just sound business.
It’s not the air travel that’s weird, just Sanford’s take on it.
By GamecockDude on August 30th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
It was asked above — “What impression does that make upon the digniteries and captains of industry he is scheduled to meet?”
Ummm, if he is well-rested when he meets “dignitaries and captains of industry,” how would they know or care what kind of flight he gets.
Do you think the Chinese officials he met asked to see his ticket first?
And let’s not kid ourselves that he has been meeting many captains of industry, also. But really, why should they give a f—?
By MKinVA on August 31st, 2009 at 9:27 am
Elmo got it right! What the heck did the people of SC get from some of these trips. He took the whole family with him last summer. What came of that? Did he even bring back t-shirts? He campaigned against just such junkets even back when he was running for Congress. Of course, the minute he was elected he went on a trip to Chile. You remember, the one where he hooked up, on a dinner date at least, with an American businesswoman? Remember, he pretended he was single? Yeah, that junket. I guess he took the family with him last year because he’s just not into Asian chicks.
By AdrianaTheTran on August 31st, 2009 at 10:37 am
Dear Governor Sanford,
I love flying. Remember that time in the back of a King Air you asked if the drapes matched the curtains? I didn’t know what you meant. Honestly, I still don’t. You laughed, then went to the back to brush your teeth. All I could hear was you gagging. Sounded familiar.
Lovingly,
Adriana
Follow the love story at http://www.DearGovernorSanford.com