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Sports Authority General Counsel Steps Down

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: October 26, 2008

TAMPA - The general counsel for the Tampa Sports Authority has stepped down amid questions about a potential conflict of interest involving a former board member and his law firm.

In a letter Thursday to TSA executive director Henry Saavedra, John Van Voris asked to be withdrawn from a short list of candidates to be the authority's attorney and said his firm, GrayRobinson, will no longer represent the authority. He offered to stay until a replacement is selected.

At a Monday meeting of the authority's board, Van Voris wasn't one of three attorneys chosen by the selection committee, but the full board voted 6-5 to add his name back to the list. That left four people in the running for the position, even though the selection process was supposed to yield only three names.

"Therefore, in our opinion, expanding the short list to four candidates runs a significant risk that someone will file a formal protest to the selection process," Van Voris wrote.
Saavedra has come under fire for not disclosing that former board member Sue House did consulting work for GrayRobinson while serving on the authority.

House served on the board from 1995 to 2007, including a stint as chairwoman. Financial disclosure records show she claimed income from GrayRobinson as a part-time marketing consultant for several years while also serving on the board.
Van Voris didn't refer directly to the allegations in his letter, but cited "the controversy our continued representation of the authority is causing within the board itself" as one of the reasons his firm was withdrawing from the short list and will no longer serve the board.

"I think what they did was correct," said Vincent Marchetti, chairman of the board's executive committee. He said he voted against GrayRobinson because the other three firms had more expertise and experience to advise the authority.
Van Voris has represented the taxpayer-funded sports authority for more than a decade for GrayRobinson and for the Shackleford, Farrior, Stallings & Evans law firm.

Neither Saavedra nor Van Voris saw a conflict in the business relationship, each said, and neither informed the 11-member board of House's employment with GrayRobinson.

"We need to know," Marchetti said. "We can't govern if we don't have the information."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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