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College In Sansom Inquiry Chastised About Meeting

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI

cdolinski@tampatrib.com

Published: January 28, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - Attorney General Bill McCollum has sent the Northwest Florida State College trustees a letter saying it is illegal to advertise government meetings in one town but hold it in another town far away - something the college did when holding a meeting that's linked to the controversy over House Speaker Ray Sansom.

McCollum released the letter Tuesday morning. In it, he said a court decision makes clear that holding a meeting in a town distant from where it is advertised violates state open meeting laws.

Northwest Florida State College advertised a March meeting with Sansom in Okaloosa County but held it 150 miles away in Tallahassee to discuss allowing the school to offer four-year degrees.

In his letter, McCollum said "it appears upon review, based on reported information, that the manner in which the college noticed and held a meeting of trustees in Tallahassee is very questionable and could easily be interpreted to contravene ... the Florida Statutes."

McCollum didn't mention Sansom by name in his letter, or the specific date of the meeting he was investigating. But the attorney general told reporters that he was checking on whether the March meeting violated state open meeting laws, as well as requirements for keeping minutes of the meeting.

The college's handling of that meeting is but one part of the controversy swirling around Sansom accepting an unadvertised, $110,000-a-year vice president's job at the school after steering tens of millions of extra state dollars to the school.

A grand jury in Tallahassee is investigating Sansom's dealings with the college.
Sansom continues to maintain that he has done nothing wrong. He also has said that he believes the college fulfilled its open government obligation in March.

Tuesday, McCollum said that it was his role "to facilitate, educate, bring people together" when it comes to issues of open government. It is not, he said, his role to determine violations and penalties.

He leaves that, he said, to Florida's elected state attorneys, two of whom were copied on the letter to Northwest Florida State College.

On Tuesday, the college released a statement saying that it "agrees completely with the importance of open government and full compliance with the Sunshine Law," and that its legal consultants believe, now as they did then, that there was no violation.

"Members of the trustees and college administration have a tradition of annual Capital visits, as do many colleges," the college's statement reads. "In an abundance of caution, when a legislative briefing in Tallahassee was scheduled for March 24, 2008, a notice was published March 17 in the Northwest Florida Daily News. ... The March 24 meeting was further announced in a public meeting of the Board Facilities and Program Committee which met in Niceville, March 18. Minutes of that meeting record that "He college President James Richburg also reminded the trustees of their legislative meeting in Tallahassee on March 24."

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382.

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