|| By FITSNEWS || Catherine Templeton – credited with taming the largest, most antiquated agency in South Carolina government – is back in the news this week. The former director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) has been working for the past three months as a consultant with the state’s Department of Revenue (SCDOR).
As reported by Andrew Shain of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper, she’ll be off the public dole come July 1 … but why?
Speculation is swirling on any number of fronts … most prominently that Templeton is under consideration to become the next secretary of the S.C. Department of Transportation under governor Nikki Haley.
That’s apparently what was lost in translation when Shain reported that Templeton had “been approached about working with business groups trying to win a road-funding package in the Legislature.”
Templeton has been approached by business groups (and lawmakers), sure, although their ask has been that she consider becoming the next SCDOT leader – not lead an effort to raise the gas tax.
One business leader told FITS the idea was “to get Mrs. Fix-It where things need fixing.”
There are three problems with that theory, though …
First, if Templeton were nominated and confirmed as the next South Carolina transportation secretary – she wouldn’t be able to effect the sort of changes she implemented at SCDHEC. That’s because the governing board of SCDOT – as we noted in this post – is appointed by state lawmakers, not the governor.
Second, it’s not exactly clear the status of Templeton’s relationship with Haley – the woman who would have to appoint her. In fact multiple lawmakers told FITS Haley’s administration was spinning a narrative that Templeton had been “fired” from her consulting position with SCDOR – at Haley’s order.
SCDOR sources tell us that narrative is false, that Templeton was hired for a ” fraud prevention project” that “needed expedited project management” – and that she was chosen for the job because of her experience working with multiple state and federal agencies on “fraud identification and prevention.”
As for the timing of Templeton’s departure, the project she was spearheading was procured last month – and is currently in the process of being transitioned to the agency’s fraud unit. Even so, Haley loyalists are clearly spreading false rumors in an effort to damage Templeton … who reportedly got the SCDOR contract without Haley’s knowledge.
Third, and finally, Templeton has told her closest confidantes that she’s not interesting in the SCDOT job because it lacks “direct authority and accountability” and because she’s “not necessarily” on board with the gas tax hike being pushed by those also pushing for her nomination.
“She doesn’t think we need it until we find out how much waste there is at SCDOT that could be used for roads,” one of Templeton’s top advisors told FITS.
Obviously Templeton would be a dramatic improvement over the retired military drunk or the liberal, tax-hike backing lobbyist Haley appointed previously.
But again, until there is “direct authority and accountability” in this job – there’s no point in Templeton (or anyone worthwhile) taking it.
Unless of course they want to be a puppet …
45 comments
Will, this Catherine Templeton obession is the only healthy one you have, 10+!
Right on…if you’re gonna obsess, do it on smart, hot chics.
The shoe thing is tolerable, depending on who’s feet are in them. Beth Bernstein is OK.
It just hit me, isn’t your moniker the name of a fictitious country mentioned in a Marx Brothers movie?
Freedonia-and-Sylvania
http://www.pjfarmer.com/secret/gazeteer/Freedonia-and-Sylvania.htm
ok, thanks….
Is she Jewish? I ask only because I only have one birthday a year. ;-)
She is.
Bernstein is hot. Hair style not to everyone’s liking, but I like that cleaned-up old-school hippie chick look myself.
Beth is older than me, but she went to the same high school as me. She graduated a few years before I started there. I knew a few of her siblings.They are a nice family and sweet people. Though I’m not Jewish, I’ve attended several funerals and one worship service at the synagogue they attend. The house she lives in now is about five blocks from the house I was raised in.
And all the ladies are hot, for sure.
I want her….. drunk or sober
“You want answers?!”
“I want the truth!”
“You can’t handle the truth!(and Templeton)
“That is all…Dismissed!” and get her out of your mind.”
if she would just give me a chance I would take it!
Perhaps Wil is switching from obsessing over males (Davis, Paul, T-Rav, Trump) to females.
The J0bSite on the Net @mk6
….
http://www.FinanceNetMoneyBing/quick/dollars….
I don’t believe that Nikki wants any woman who is prettier and smarter than she is for competition, because Catherine may be positioning herself to challenge her.
“…..to challenge her….”
Well, if it is for Bitch Cockroach of the Decade, then both Nags are only a nose hair apart
Well, I’ll wait to see what is written in the sands of time…
A PSALM OF LIFE
————————
Life is real, life is earnest, and the shell is not its pen
–“Egg thou art, and egg remainest” was not spoken of the hen.
Art is long and Time is fleeting, be our bills then
sharpened well, and not like muffled drums be beating on the inside of the shell.
In the world’s broad field of battle, in the great barnyard of life, be not like those lazy cattle!
Be a rooster in the strife!
Lives of roosters all remind us, we can make our lives
sublime, and when roasted, leave behind us, hen tracks on the sands of time.
Hen tracks that perhaps another chicken drooping in the rain, some forlorn and henpecked brother, when he sees, shall crow again.
Not fair, Shifty. A lot of stereotypes packed your comment. If anything,Nikki has a bias toward hiring too many women of all shapes an sizes.
Name a single one of them as attractive as Templeton. Remember, there was a time when this delightfully proportioned woman was a bit curvier, to the point that people made “fat” jokes about her. She never looked bad to me. But at that time, guys on here were praising Nikki’s butt and legs, and fat-shaming the Temp. If memory serves.
Catherine Templeton, twice. You set a high standard. I’m not going to label women “as attractive” or not. This article about Haley or her supporters objection of Templeton is pure unsubstantiated rubbish that finds a perfect home at Fitsnews.
If you dislike Fitsnews reporting so much do all of the rest of us a favor. Make like your sock puppet GrandTango and disappear.
Shifty is the Fitsnews court jester. He get’s wide latitude for that reason. You are being prudish.
She is really, really good looking, but smarter than me. So I will pass….
She could handle DOT. DHEC’s environmental side has her already experienced with gasbag full-of-themselves bureaucratic incompetent engineers.
It is nice to hear about a smart woman working in the higher echelons of state government and being successful. We need more smart women that look like Templeton in all functions and levels of the state government.
We get tired of constantly being bombarded with Male Legislators and Department heads, with their enormous egos, small brains, and even smaller “penises” or “penii”(which ever you prefer) pissing all over the people of South Carolina. I want to be pissed on, shoved around, and abused by good-looking female legislators and Agency Heads with nice asses and big hooters. It would almost make bad government worthwhile.
“Male Legislators and Department heads, with their enormous egos . . .”
. . . and prodigious bellies.
Among the legislator’s list of attributes, I should have included that one.
I liked this quote:
“Templeton rebuffed talk that she might run next year for the 1st District congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-Charleston.
“I’m not sure why I would want to be one of the 435 least approved people in the United States,” she said.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article24760909.html#storylink=cpy
Cat the Witch was hired as Cybersecurity expert, a fraud expert, and a project manager depending on which of several press releases you read or believe. She was payed $12.5K per month or $100K total for the “project”. Sure glad we have transperancy laws is SC. Also happy to know a lawyer in SC is an expert on everything thing. I suspect the SC Supreme Court will rule shortly that at JD and passing the easy SC Bar Exam qualifies a lawyer to accomplish any job in the state. Cat is a back stabbing witch and probably one if Trikki’s boot lickers.
” Also happy to know a lawyer in SC is an expert on everything thing. I suspect the SC Supreme Court will rule shortly that at JD and passing the easy SC Bar Exam qualifies a lawyer to accomplish any job in the state.”
I was going to say the same thing. And, I never knew trial lawyers could do any and everything until Trikki Nikki Haley started appointing them to every board, commission and management job at every agency that she can…while running roughshod over that simple minded Vincent Shaheen with ads vilifying anyone who has ever passed the bar.
All I can say is that Templeton is one of Jeb’s top dogs in the state. Take what you will from that.
Proof?
Ask her.
Tis true.
Contributors,
I have enjoyed my time on FitsNews.Thank you, Will Folks. What a great place to visit everyday, for the latest in state and national politics.EVERY writer of articles on this site (whether I agree with them politically or not) has been informative,fun and entertaining. I have spread the word of FitsNews all over this great country.
As a husband,father,grandfather and small business owner I want to thank ALL of you for allowing me to be part of this small “family” for a short period of time.Thru chemo/radiation and treatment for multiple blood clots…FitsNews has ALWAYS been my go to when shaking,vomiting or weeping.A place to escape and forget my physical pain and share opinions with some great people.
GT is gone.I know I am not welcome by the majority therefore I need to leave. I want it on the record that I wish no one any harm. Threats of physical harm to me,family and lawsuits just make this not worth it anymore.
Best wishes to all.
flip/pogo
“Threats of physical harm to me,family and lawsuits just make this not worth it anymore.”
Gad!! Sorry to hear that.
“Threats of physical harm to me,family and lawsuits ”
What’s that all about? Did I miss out on some clues?
Buck up fella – no one is welcomed on this site –
In fact if this site was newsprint there would not be a live canary/parakeet within 200 miles of Columbia – every last one of them would rather die of constipation than take a shit on what is posted on this site
As for physical threats doubt if anyone who posts on a regular basis has enough upper body strength to lean over far enough to keep from puking down the front of their pants
Lawsuits – bullshit – individuals who post comments anonymously ain’t the type who want to get into a room full of Cockroach attorneys, raise their right hand and go on the record
Keep on posting and remember the words of Crazy Horse when he first caught sight of General Custer at the Little Big Horn –Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe which one am I going to fuck first, the dead General or the dead horse
Fuck’em, Fuck’em All
Well…..bye.
This woman is a liar, a cheat and a blatant opportunist. Her ONLY accomplishment is bleeding money out of state government. Who in the world can catalogue any substantive thing she has ever done?
She–at the advice of experienced line scientific staff–turned down the permit renewal for the totally failed large septic-tank sludge dump disguised only very shabbily as a “farm.” Middle and lower managers were actively trying to repermit it, in large part to help cover up their long-term negligence and failure to protect the surrounding neighborhoods from home-well contamination. That would not have happened before her. It was her two-way open-communications policy that worked, plus her gumption to make a tough decision. Staff technical recommendations would have never before reached the director, just the middle-managers’ self-serving bureaucratic wishes. There are other examples of tough correct decisions that would not have happened before, perhaps notably related to the Wateree River and compliance and enforcement. The “not one thing good” criticism is juvenile.
Are we waiting for her to do sexual harassment seminars at small businesses again?