E-mail: Ex-chief forced out

Though former Patriots Point Executive Director Hugh Tant wrote in his resignation letter that he wanted to spend more time with family, rumors surfaced soon after his departure that the decision was not his own.

Days before Tant stepped down, certain board members met without notifying the rest of the group and asked for his resignation, according to an e-mail written by one of the excluded

members and obtained by The Post and Courier.

In the e-mail, board member Susan Marlowe asked chairman John B. Hagerty if she and then-Mount Pleasant Mayor Harry Hallman, a voting member of the board, were the only representatives from the six-person group excluded from the discussion.

"It is interesting to me that the chairman of a public board might skirt the written bylaws governing the PPDA and exclude certain members from discussions of this scope and magnitude," Marlowe wrote.

She sent the e-mail to the entire board and blind-copied it to Tant and to S.C. Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, who appointed her to the board. Though The Post and Courier requested all correspondence between board members and Tant, the authority's attorney did not provide this particular e-mail.

McConnell, whose office furnished a copy of the correspondence, said its contents disturbed him.

"To date we've been getting surprises regarding the condition of the ships over there, but now it appears that's not the only thing leaking," he said.

Patriots Point recently unveiled a $64 million redevelopment plan and a more urgent need for millions of dollars to keep its ill-maintained warships from sinking into the harbor. McConnell has proposed legislation that would add board members and has taken an active role in searching for emergency funding needed to keep the attraction alive.

"For there to be legislative help, we've got to know what's going on," he said.

Marlowe continued her e-mail with a battery of questions: How many meetings took place? Did any other included members know she and Hallman had not been notified? Have any meetings or conversations violated the Freedom of Information Act?

Tant "has, to my knowledge, more than adequately fulfilled his duties," Marlowe wrote.

She sent the e-mail April 16. Four days later the full board met and voted to accept Tant's resignation, with Marlowe and Hallman dissenting.

The Post and Courier did not receive notice of the meeting, which did not keep with the authority's regular meeting schedule or location.

S.C. Press Association attorney Jay Bender said in order for the meeting to be a Freedom of Information Act violation, a quorum of four members must have attended.

Hagerty would not say in an interview Friday how many board members were present at the meetings or if they took place at all.

"There were no inappropriate meetings, No. 1," he said. "And No. 2, no comment."

Since Patriots Point's financial woes became public, Hagerty has repeatedly stressed in interviews about the need "to be transparent as an organization, so the public will know what (the) situation is."

Regarding Tant, Hagerty said he would defer to the reasons the retired Army general listed in a farewell e-mail to staff: his approaching 60th birthday and the need to devote more time to family and hobbies.

"I have the greatest respect for Hugh Tant, I have no comment other than to take his letter at his word," Hagerty said.

Tant did not return calls to his wireless phone seeking comment.

In her e-mail, Marlowe asked Hagerty if he requested Tant's resignation because of complaints from disgruntled employees. Hagerty did not answer any of her questions in his written response.

Reached by phone, Marlowe said she heard only accolades about Tant from both lawmakers and community members.

"I questioned, as a board member, whether he was afforded due process," she said.

In her e-mail to Hagerty, she wrote: "You must be very sure that whatever is done reflects the vote of the majority of an informed board, is proper, 100 percent defensible and, most importantly, justified."