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Sansom Denies Wrongdoing

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI

cdolinski@tampatrib.com

Published: January 21, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - House Speaker Ray Sansom continued on Tuesday to insist that he did nothing wrong by accepting an unadvertised, $110,000 post at Northwest Florida State College after channeling an extra $25 million to the Niceville college.
Sansom has retreated from nearly all media since the political firestorm arose in December over his acceptance of a vice presidency at Northwest. In the past week, however, he has begun calling members of the media to talk about the state's budget woes as well as his dealings with the college.

The House speaker came under fire from media outlets across the state in the fall when he accepted the unadvertised position at Northwest. The speaker took the job, reporters found, after channeling an extra $25 million to the school the previous spring.

Tuesday, Sansom blamed the media for the controversy. He would never have put his family through reading scathing articles and editorials about him day after day, he said, had he foreseen it.

"There's not a job out there that I would take that would be worth that," Sansom said.

The battery of reports sparked a citizen complaint about Sansom, R-Destin, to the Florida Commission on Ethics. Sansom gave up his college post at the start of the special legislative session on Jan. 5.

"Every speaker that I have ever known has had another job; there's nothing wrong with that," he said. "When the press made it controversial, I owed it to my members to step down from that job and get rid of the controversy."

Since then, however, Tallahassee-based State Attorney Willie Meggs has said that he will inform a grand jury about complaints received about Sansom. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, meanwhile, is looking into a meeting between Sansom and college President Bob Richburg and whether it violated the state's open government law.
Sansom said that as a lawmaker he is not subject to Sunshine Law requirements unless other lawmakers are present.

The onus was on the college, which, he said, satisfied the requirement.

He denied that he and Richburg were attempting to have a private meeting that was only technically public, despite an e-mail exchange in which Richburg wrote to Sansom: "It's probably the only way we can do it in privacy but with a public notice here."

Sansom said he welcomed the inquiries and has never thought about relinquishing his position as House speaker. "I know I will come out of this clean and clear and move on," he said. "It's not any distraction for me."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or

cdolinski@tampatrib.com.

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