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Sansom Finally Steps Down

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 31, 2009

It's no surprise that Ray Sansom stepped down as Florida speaker of the House. Under criminal and ethical investigations, Sansom had become a liability to his Republican colleagues, who wanted him out of the limelight pronto.

What's surprising is that Tallahassee nest-feathering was finally called to account.

Ransom took an unadvertised, $110,000-a-year vice president's job at Northwest Florida State College, his alma mater, after having lavished millions on the campus.

One curious project paid for an emergency operations training center on campus that appeared to be just like the airplane hangar a Sansom campaign supporter had wanted for his business.

Lawmakers of both parties have long taken jobs with institutions they supported in the Legislature. But in recent years some of the financial arrangements have been brazen.

Sen. Mike Haridopolos, a Merritt Island Republican slated to become Senate president, earned $38,000 a year from Brevard Community, where he did not have to teach but only produce a book on the Legislature.

He has since got himself a nifty $75,000-a-year job at the University of Florida as a part-time lecturer.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio of West Miami took a part-time job at Florida International University for $69,000.

And Sen. Evelyn Lynn of Ormond Beach helped create a reading center at Florida State University, and then took a $120,000-a-year job overseeing it, which she gave up once her employment hit the newspapers.
Sansom gave up his job, too, once it was reported. And his House colleagues gave him a standing ovation when he announced it - a display of stunning indifference to ethical propriety.

Perhaps Sansom's fall from power will give lawmakers pause about using the Legislature to create, at public expense, employment opportunities for themselves.

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