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Sen. Crist Contract Scrutinized

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI

cdolinski@tampatrib.com

Published: December 18, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Sen. Victor Crist's promotions firm has a $40,000 contract with a University of South Florida organization to drum up support for the university's growing diabetes research initiative.

Crist hopes the initiative - which would base research in Tampa that is currently spread over more than 70 countries - will stimulate the economy and provide more medical services locally. In particular, he hopes it will revitalize the blighted neighborhood just west of USF's medical campus.

"This is the final piece of my 28-year project of rebuilding Suitcase City," he said.

But is the USF connection too close for comfort for a lawmaker who votes on higher education issues?

"It could give that appearance" of impropriety, said Ben Wilcox, director of Common Cause Florida. "That's the problem when the Legislature has such a low standard for conflict of interest; these things can occur."

With controversy swirling over House Speaker Ray Sansom's new job at Northwest Florida State College - where he channeled $25 million in state money last spring - people are asking tough questions these days about financial ties between legislators and the universities they oversee.

Wednesday, Crist said his hands are clean. "We dotted our I's and crossed our T's because nobody wanted any trouble."

The $40,000 contract is no quid pro quo, he said. He described it as a continuation of the grass-roots community efforts he started when he was a USF undergraduate.

"The economic viability for Hillsborough County ... would be tremendous," said Crist. "Because there's no room for USF to expand on campus; they'd have to go off-campus, and the only direction they can go is west."

The contract, he said, is with University Medical Service Association, a support organization for the USF College of Medicine. The contract is signed by Stephen Klasko, who is both dean of the College of Medicine and chairman of UMSA's board of directors.

Crist said Klasko first contacted him late last summer about the project, and that the contract is paid entirely by UMSA, which he described as generating its own income. In the contract, University Medical Service Association is described as "a Florida corporation not-for-profit."

"They're not funded with state revenues," Crist said of UMSA. "I made clear I would not want to be paid with any dollars that were state dollars - and they agreed. Neither the university nor I wanted to do anything inappropriate."

Crist said he expects to take no more than 10 percent of the contract as personal compensation.

USF spokeswoman Lara Wade could not comment on the contract details but said the association is part of the university. The support entity collects fees for medical services rendered by USF physicians and plows the money back into the College of Medicine. Klasko allocates the money.

Crist's 25-year-old firm, Metropolitan Communications, is working on a Web site to provide information about the research initiative, allowing viewers to "lend their name" to the cause.

By Tallahassee standards, Crist sits at a distance from most of USF's political concerns. The head of criminal justice appropriations in the Senate, he does not belong to any policy or budgeting committees focused on higher education.

He became involved last spring in a tussle between USF and the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute over a proposed merger, siding mostly with the university. Crist said he would recuse himself if any USF-related controversies arise in the Senate next year.

He sits on his chamber's general appropriations panel but said his role is to vote a full budget up or down, not to meddle with the details of higher education funding.

Wilcox said he thinks that Crist is probably on solid ground, ethically speaking, because he does not appear to have wielded any undue influence.

"As long as he takes pains to draw real clear lines between his personal business and his public business, he's probably going to be all right," Wilcox said. "I would encourage him to be as public and transparent as he can be."

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