COLUMN: For Ray Sansom, judgment day is getting closer

Maybe state Rep. Ray Sansom will finally and officially face judgment.

It’s long overdue.

Last week, a House committee denied the once-powerful Destin Republican’s motion to dismiss legislative misconduct charges against him. The committee also denied a motion from Sansom to delay a hearing for a third time. Both votes were unanimous.

The hearing in Tallahassee is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 22.

Nearly 15 months have passed since the scandal involving Sansom and Northwest Florida State College erupted in late November 2008, after Sansom took a $110,000-a-year, unadvertised part-time job at the college on the same day he became speaker of the House.

Many taxpayers may have forgotten just how Sansom came to be in this position. Here’s a refresher:

l During the 2007 legislative session, Sansom, as House budget chair, inserted $6 million into the state budget to fund an emergency operations training center the college would operate at Destin Airport.

Documents and interviews by state investigators indicate the center was also to be used as an aircraft hangar by Destin Jet owner Jay Odom, a close associate of Sansom and a major contributor to the state Republican Party.

Sansom and college President James “Bob” Richburg have denied the facility was ever going to be used as a hangar.

But last August an employee of Odom told a state investigator that he and college architect Jim Dowling discussed how to make the college’s training center work as an aircraft hangar. Project manager Jason Carter said he and Dowling discussed “what types of airplanes might be housed in the large staging area or hangar and what types of activities might happen there.”

Carter added: “I selected the largest planes that could possibly be at the airport. My reasoning is if it can land at the airport, it might be stored there.”

There’s also a Dec. 4, 2008, e-mail from Dowling to college Vice President Gary Yancey stating: “We have it confirmed by the user of the staging area that multiple aircraft will be stored; therefore we are required to add floor trench drains, slope the floor, and add a gas intercept in the line by code.”

Sansom, Richburg and Odom also face state grand-theft charges in relation to the airport project. All three have pleaded not guilty.

l In spring 2008, Sansom and Richburg arranged for the college’s board of trustees to travel 150 miles to Tallahassee to meet with Sansom.

The March 24, 2008, meeting was advertised in the Daily News as a “legislative briefing,” but Sansom was the only legislator invited.

In a Feb. 12, 2008, e-mail exchange, Richburg and Sansom expressed a desire to keep the meeting private.

Richburg to Sansom: “Think about a meeting in Tall. with you, the trustees and me to talk about the proposed college change and the system issues. It’s probably the only way we can do it in privacy but with a public notice here.”

Sansom to Richburg: “That would be great!! We can get a private room on the 6th floor at FSU.”

No minutes were kept of the meeting, at which Sansom discussed increasing four-year degrees offered at the school.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, in an informal opinion, called the meeting “very questionable” and added that it “could easily be interpreted” as violating Florida’s Sunshine Law.

l Also in 2008, Sansom as House budget chair inserted $8 million into the state budget to create a “Leadership Institute” at the college.

Sansom and Richburg have both indicated they first discussed a job for Sansom at the school in August or September 2008. But e-mails show the two discussed Sansom’s possible employment at the college months earlier, even before Gov. Charlie Crist signed the budget that contained money for the Leadership Institute.

On May 25, 2008, Richburg e-mailed Sansom from his college account with “some quick thoughts on areas for a performance contract.”

Sansom replied: “Do you have a private e-mail?”

To which Richburg responded: “Good idea.”

Then on June 10, 2008, Sansom e-mailed Richburg a “draft proposal” for the position of “vice president of external affairs” for the college. The next day, Crist signed the budget that contained the funding for the Leadership Institute.

Since then, two college officials — Leadership Institute grants administrator Julie Cotton and Vice President Jill White — have submitted affidavits stating that they were told Sansom would have supervision over the Leadership Institute.

If the House committee finds the ethics charges facing Sansom are valid, the full House will consider actions ranging from acquittal to a reprimand to expulsion.

The real question is this: Were Sansom’s actions acceptable behavior by a legislator?

Northwest Florida’s voters may finally get an answer.

Pat Rice is director of content for Florida Freedom Newspapers. He can be reached at patrickr@nwfdailynews.com. Read his blog at nwfdailynews.com.