STATE — Though four members of the House of Representatives pre-filed a resolution to impeach Gov. Mark Sanford Tuesday, House

Speaker Bobby Harrell said that resolution will not be acted upon.

Tuesday marked the close of the first pre-file date before the House’s 2010 session begins, and the impeachment resolution was one of 51 bills and resolutions pre-filed by House members.

Harrell said that the House will wait to act on any impeachment proceedings until the State Ethics Commission concludes its investigation of Sanford’s travel records.

“As we have consistently said before, the House should not take any official action until it receives the Ethics Commission’s investigative report so that we can address this issue knowing all the facts,” Harell said. “Since, by Court order, the investigative report will be a public document once Governor Sanford receives it, I expect the committee to have access to that report.”

The governor had petitioned the Supreme Court to rule that the commission’s investigation results could not be released to the House, citing concerns the findings could be used against him politically, but the Supreme Court ruled against him earlier this month.

Harrell said that waiting until the investigation is concluded is the right course of action.

“Unless the investigation contains new information about serious crimes or serious misconduct by the governor, in my opinion, the information we have to date does not rise to a level to remove him from office,” he said.

“The Ethics Commission’s investigation will be used as the basis to determine whether or not the Governor’s actions rise to that level.”

The resolution pre-filed by Reps. Greg Delleny, Mike Pitts, Keith Kelley and Gary Simrill was sent to the state House Judiciary Committee, Harrell said.

“The Judiciary Committee will conduct its work in a deliberative manner,” he said. “It is important that we take the Governor’s actions seriously and fully investigate this issue, but it is also important that we do this in a timely manner so that our state can move forward.”

The House bill states that Sanford should be impeached for abandoning the state in June to visit his mistress in Argentina, and those actions, and the resulting events, have “brought extreme shame and dishonor” to the governor’s office.

The bill also states that before and during his absence, Sanford directed his staff “in a manner that caused them to deceive and mislead the public officials of the State of South Carolina as well as the public of the State of South Carolina.”

Sanford’s actions constitute a dereliction of duty and justify impeachment, the bill states.

Harrell said that he doesn’t think Sanford leaving the state warrants impeachment.

Attorney General Henry McMaster said in a statement today that he expects to receive the commissions’ report later soon.

“I will conduct a thorough review of the report to determine what, if any, prosecutorial action may be warranted by the facts,” McMaster said. “This matter will be handled professionally, with the same standards and procedures applied to any other case.

“The public will be kept fully informed,” he said. “However, at this time, until I determine whether any prosecutorial action should be taken, it would be inappropriate to speculate on timetables, the outcome or to make any other comment."

Harrell did respond to the governor’s refusal to hand over the commission’s findings last week.

Sanford received the findings on Wednesday, and Harrell said he was disappointed in the governor for not releasing them.

“After claiming to be a leader in the transparency movement and heavily criticizing others on this issue, the Governor’s insistence on secrecy goes against all his past actions on this issue,” Harrell said.

“The nine member Ethics Commission had the opportunity to publicly release this investigation during their closed-door meeting yesterday. Instead, the Commission chose to privately give the Governor this public document.

“Governor Sanford should release this public document to the citizens of South Carolina so that we can see the facts behind these allegations made against our state’s highest elected official.”

As the Sentinel went to press, the Ethics Commission revealed Sanford faces a total of 37 ethics charges.