COLUMBIA - A well-connected Greenville public relations executive was rejected today as a candidate for the state Transportation Commission after failing to fully disclose business relationships legislators said could pose conflicts.

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Tim Brett's political connections run deep, making it all the more surprising he didn't win a seat on a board that handles billions of dollars in road building decisions.

The 56-year-old former lawmaker said the 10-member Joint Transportation Review Committee is overstepping its authority. "Instead, it has taken on the role of an ethics commission, which is, in my judgment, not within their authority," Brett said. "I have no conflicts."

Brett served two terms in the state House ending in 1986. He was appointed to the commission in 1991, but quit a year later when the Legislature passed a law barring lobbyists from serving on boards and commissions. The client list for Brett Inc. is packed with big-name clients including Michelin, AT&T, Blue Cross, CVS and Wal-Mart. And it includes the Southern Connector, an upstate privately owned toll road that's had persistent financial problems.

But it's that list that also made Brett the first candidate to be formally rejected by the committee. The panel was set up in a 2007 overhaul of the state Transportation Department and determines who joins the seven-member panel that sets priorities and makes spending decisions.

Legislators said they didn't think Brett revealed enough about his clients on a questionnaire candidates fill out. They found some of those details instead by looking at Brett's corporate Internet site. Brett said the form is unclear.

"Some of the existing or prior relationships that may be impacted by DOT decisions were either unintentionally omitted or for some reason were not included," said state Rep. Phillip Owens, R-Pickens and chairman of the House's education and transportation committee.

Owens said that may have been simple miscommunication, but noted the questionnaire is clear in asking for about potential conflicts of interest.

"The committee had asked not once, not twice, but three times, sometimes four times the questions, and unfortunately, Mr. Brett didn't give us the information to do it," said committee member and state Rep. Annette Young, R-Summerville.

The committee had planned to ask Brett during a screening committee hearing Wednesday why he didn't think current or past clients, including the Southern Connector, a private Upstate toll road, would pose conflicts, but Brett wasn't at the hearing.

Brett said he was meeting with an economic development client and was only notified about the hearing on Monday. He sent the panel a letter, saying he'd been urged to drop out of the race after the questions about conflicts came up, but was staying in.

"But I know my conscious (sic) is clean and I don't have a conflict of interest," Brett wrote, noting he'd been encouraged by state Sens. Mike Fair and David Thomas. "I feel like I would be letting them and the people of Greenville down if I withdrew. So I am not going to take the easy way out and withdraw."

Instead, Brett took the panel to task for what he called an unexpected ordeal.

The review committee, he said, is responsible for verifying candidates are college graduates with five years experience in at least one of seven fields. "The committee has expanded that authority to perform an ethics review," Brett wrote.

The 2007 law, however, says the screening committee must consider the "common sense and integrity" of candidates.

Brett said he was peppered with questions about current and former clients during the past 17 years. "My mistake was putting those clients' names on my company's Web site," Brett wrote.

"These conflicts were money issues," said committee member and state Rep. Annette Young, R-Summerville.

"He had contracts with different groups - the Southern Connector - all of those that had to go through the DOT for approval," Young said. "All of those are possibly conflicts and I believe people ought to know because that's something that would benefit him."

Brett said he has no current conflicts and ended his contract with the Southern Connector in December to avoid the appearance of a conflict.