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When governor Henry McMaster called and asked me to serve on the South Carolina Department of Transportation Commission, I asked him a simple question:
“What do you want me to do?”
His answer was equally simple:
“Do what you do.”
I took that seriously. When I was sworn in back in May of 2025, I was, to my knowledge, the youngest commissioner in the history of the agency. I did not come to SCDOT as an engineer, a career bureaucrat or someone who had spent a lifetime in government. I came as a business owner and investor.
I have spent my career trying to fix problems, believing in possibilities, allocating resources and creating opportunities for other people. I brought that same energy and focus to SCDOT.
During my time on the Commission, I have developed enormous respect for the thousands of people who keep South Carolina moving every day. There are talented people throughout this Department doing important work for our state. But good people can still work inside systems that need to improve.
And South Carolina now has a generational opportunity to improve one.
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Beginning January 1, 2027, the SCDOT Commission will cease to exist. Under Act 177, the Commission’s powers and responsibilities will be transferred to the Secretary of Transportation, who will be appointed by (and serve at the pleasure of) the Governor. This is a move I publicly advocated for in my opinion piece, entitled “I would give up my seat to modernize SC’s transportation system.”
For the first time in decades, South Carolinians should be able to draw a straight line between the performance of their road system and the person ultimately responsible for it. That is a major reform.
But changing the organizational chart alone will not change the organization.
The next phase should begin with two principles that are fundamental to every well-run organization I have ever been involved with: transparency and accountability.
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IF WE CAN MEASURE IT, THE PUBLIC SHOULD SEE IT
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South Carolinians spend billions of dollars every year building and maintaining one of the largest state-maintained highway systems in America. They should not need to be transportation experts, file Freedom of Information Act requests or call someone “in the know” to understand how that system is performing.
SCDOT should build a public-facing agency performance dashboard modeled in part on what the Virginia Department of Transportation already provides its citizens. VDOT’s public dashboard reports performance across projects, pavement condition, bridge and structure condition, safety and highway operations. Its project dashboard allows the public to examine whether projects are being developed and delivered on time.
South Carolina can do the same.
A citizen should be able to open SCDOT’s website and immediately see the basic operating health of the Department. How many major projects are on schedule? How many are behind schedule? How many are on budget? How many are over budget?
What is the condition of our pavement? What percentage of our bridges are in good, fair or poor condition? How quickly are maintenance requests being addressed? How long is it taking to issue permits? How quickly are contracts moving from authorization to letting?
Those measurements should not be buried in PowerPoint presentations or agency reports. They should exist on a live public dashboard that anyone can understand.
The objective should not be to embarrass SCDOT when a metric turns red. The objective should be to identify problems earlier, direct resources toward them and create confidence when the agency performs well.
In business, I want bad information quickly. Finding out about a problem six months later does not make the problem better. It simply reduces the amount of time available to fix it.
Government should operate with the same mentality.
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GIVE EVERY MAINTENANCE ISSUE AN OWNER
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Transparency should extend all the way down to something as simple as a pothole. When a South Carolinian reports a road maintenance problem the public should be able to follow that issue from beginning to end.
The system should show where the problem is located, when it was reported, its status, which office or district is responsible for addressing it and, where practical, the expected timeline for resolution.
South Carolina’s recently enacted transportation legislation is moving in this direction as well. Act 177 establishes a pothole mitigation program for public reporting of pothole locations.
We should take the concept further.
Think about how almost every modern business interacts with its customers. If your package is being shipped across the country, you can watch it move from facility to facility. If you order dinner, you can watch the driver travel toward your house.
Yet a taxpayer can report a problem with a public asset costing millions of dollars and often have very little visibility into what happens next.
We can do better.
And putting an owner beside every issue accomplishes something just as important as informing the public. It creates accountability inside the organization.
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PERMITTING SHOULD NOT BE A BLACK BOX
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The same principle should apply to permitting. This is particularly important in a rapidly growing state.
During my first months on the Commission, permitting was one of the first areas I wanted to examine. My concern was straightforward: how much time passes between someone filing a permit application and receiving a final decision?
SCDOT data I reviewed showed statewide average review periods of 32 days for commercial driveway permits and 39 days for multiple-residential or subdivision driveway permits during the July 31, 2024, through July 31, 2025, period.
But an average alone does not tell the public enough.
The public should be able to go online and see current lead times by permit type. If a commercial driveway permit is averaging 30 days, publish it. If another category is averaging 60 days, publish that too.
That accomplishes two things.
First, it allows businesses, homeowners and developers to make plans based on actual information rather than repeatedly calling the Department asking for updates. Second, management can immediately see where bottlenecks are forming.
Maybe one district consistently processes permits in 20 days while another takes 50. That does not automatically mean anyone is doing something wrong. There may be legitimate reasons for the difference.
But management should know the difference exists. Then leadership can ask why.
Perhaps one district has a better process. Perhaps another is understaffed. Perhaps applications are incomplete. Perhaps an unnecessary approval layer exists.
You cannot improve what you cannot see.
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TRANSPARENCY MAKES ACCOUNTABILITY POSSIBLE
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This brings us to the second principle: accountability.
For years, responsibility for SCDOT was divided between a Commission, a Secretary, legislators and other stakeholders. South Carolina has now made a policy decision to change that governance model. Effective January 1, the Commission is abolished and its authority transfers to the Secretary, while the Secretary is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Governor.
That creates a much clearer chain of command. We should extend that clarity throughout the entire Department.
Every major project should have an identifiable person responsible for delivering it. Every significant operating metric should have an executive responsible for it. Every maintenance request should ultimately belong to someone. Every permit should have an accountable owner as it moves through the system.
And the Governor and Secretary should have dashboards that allow them to see performance without waiting for quarterly presentations.
Accountability does not mean punishing people every time a metric misses a target. Accountability means knowing who owns the result, understanding why the result occurred and deciding what needs to happen next.
Sometimes the answer will be better management. Sometimes it will be additional resources. Sometimes it will be technology. Sometimes it will require changing a process that has existed for 30 years.
But there should always be an answer.
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THE OPPORTUNITY AHEAD
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South Carolina has already taken the difficult political step of restructuring how SCDOT is governed. Now comes the more important work of deciding how the agency should operate.
My view is simple: open the windows. Publish the numbers.
Show citizens where their requests stand. Show businesses where their permits stand. Show taxpayers whether projects are on schedule and on budget.
And put a name beside the result.
None of this diminishes the people working at SCDOT. I believe it does the opposite.
Transparency allows good performance to be recognized. Accountability gives talented people the authority to solve problems. And better information allows leadership to put resources where they are actually needed.
When the Governor told me to “do what you do,” I interpreted that as a charge to bring the same problem-solving mentality I have used throughout my career into public service.
As the Commission prepares to disappear, I believe those of us who have had the privilege of serving have an obligation to offer what we have learned.
For me, the starting point for the next chapter of SCDOT is clear: make everything that reasonably can be measured visible and make sure someone owns the result.
Transparency first. Accountability immediately behind it.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Thomas Rhodes is an entrepreneur, investor and statewide at-large Commissioner on the South Carolina Department of Transportation Commission. A native of Summerton, South Carolina, he resides in Columbia. He previously served as Chairman of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.
The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent the South Carolina Department of Transportation, the SCDOT Commission, or any other organization with which he is affiliated.
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SOUND OFF…
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