Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla; Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney; House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter; House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville; and Rep. Leon Howard, D-Columbia, during an Agency Head Salary Commission meeting Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Nearly 40 state agency directors and public college presidents in South Carolina received raises Tuesday totaling more than $720,000.
The raises are part of an effort to bring all state agency leaders in line with what other states are paying based on a salary study conducted by a consultant based in Charlotte. The pay hikes, which ranged from $9,000 to $64,000, fall in the middle of the ranges the study recommended, said House Speaker Murrell Smith, a Sumter Republican who leads the Agency Head Salary Commission.
That included a $39,300 raise for Department of Commerce Director Harry Lightsey, making him the highest-paid agency head in the state, with an annual salary of $301,392. He was previously the fifth highest-paid.
He was the only member of the governor’s Cabinet on the list up for approvals, meaning Gov. Henry McMaster recommended increasing his salary. McMaster pointed to booms in economic development in the past two years, including billions of dollars in investment coming into the state under Lightsey’s leadership.
7 SC agency heads receive raises as high as $58K
“Secretary Lightsey has done an outstanding job, setting record after record,” McMaster wrote in his letter of recommendation to Smith.
The governing board of each college or agency recommended the rest of the 39 raises the 11-person commission approved Tuesday.
Along with looking at the ranges proposed in the salary study, commission members considered how long it had been since each person had received a raise, how long the director had been in that position, and their job performance, Smith said.
The commission did not publicly offer specific explanations for other increases.
A look at the raises
College of Charleston President Andrew Hsu received the biggest total raise, with his state-paid salary increasing about $64,000, from $256,483 to $320,500. Hsu, who took the college’s helm five years ago, also received the largest hike by percent, with a nearly 25% boost in his base pay.
The next highest was $41,000 for Fred Carter, president of Francis Marion University since 1999. His salary rises to $307,286.
Lander University President Richard Cosentino, who’s led the Greenwood college since 2015, received a $31,381 boost, upping his state-paid salary to $279,442.
The raises put them fourth, fifth and sixth in terms of the state-paid salaries of presidents of South Carolina’s four-year universities. The top-paid presidents are at the state’s research institutions — Medical University of South Carolina, University of South Carolina, and Clemson University — who also each receive substantially more from their foundations and other non-state sources.
The presidents of 12 of South Carolina’s 16 technical colleges, as well as the oversight agency for the two-year schools, also received raises Tuesday.
Some directors received high raises proportional to what they were making before, even if they were not among the largest in dollar figures.
For instance, Jolene Madison, head of the School for the Deaf and the Blind, got a $29,800 increase, which was about a 23% increase to her $130,000 salary.
Scott Phillips, head of the Forestry Commission, got a nearly 20% raise, bringing his pay up to $168,000. Constance Holloway, who oversees the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, saw her pay rise more than 17%, from $179,150 to $210,000.
The raises legislators approved Tuesday were part of a larger effort to make sure pay for agency leaders stays competitive with other states. In August, the commission approved pay bumps for seven others, amounting to about $300,000.
The commission rejected raises for directors of the Department of Consumer Affairs and the State Museum.
The panel offered no explanation for rejecting the requested increase for Consumer Affairs’ leader.
As for State Museum Director Amy Bartow-Melia, she’s already making more than the recommended amount for her position, so legislators felt she was already sufficiently paid, said Sen. Greg Hembree, R-North Myrtle Beach.
New First Steps director
Ann Vandervliet will make $159,064 as the next director of First Steps, which acts as both a state agency and a nonprofit to provide services and pre-kindergarten programs that prepare children for school.
The commission approved her salary Tuesday.
Vandervliet comes from running an early childhood nonprofit in Greensboro, North Carolina, called Guilford County Partnership for Children.
Before that, she ran a program in Virginia that connected public and private leaders to bring services to young children. She has a degree in international studies from the University of South Carolina, according to an agency news release.
Vandervliet will start work Oct. 17, according to the agency.
“I am truly honored to have this opportunity to work alongside families and communities to ensure that every child has the chance to reach their full potential,” Vandervliet said in a news release.