Former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom testifies in front of grand jury

By ALEX LEARY
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- A grand jury investigating state Rep. Ray Sansom's dealings with a Panhandle college went home Thursday without rendering a decision, setting the stage for a potentially dramatic Friday morning.

The jury met behind closed doors for eight hours and heard from 11 witnesses, including Sansom and Northwest Florida State College president Bob Richburg.

Sansom, once the third most powerful Republican in state government, provided a striking image as he entered the courtroom across the street from the Capitol while his colleagues debated the budget.

''I always enjoy talking to citizens,'' the ousted House speaker said after 80 minutes of testimony. He then boarded a third-floor elevator and rode to the ground floor alone.

A short while later, the 18-member jury told State Attorney Willie Meggs it was not ready to decide.

''We've got some work to do,'' Meggs said while leaving the courtroom.

OPTIONS

The grand jury can either hand up indictments, issue a critical report called a presentment that finds no criminal charges, or it can do nothing. It is possible Sansom's lawyer, Pete Antonacci, could seek to suppress the findings.

Judging from witnesses who were called, the grand jury has been exploring several avenues:

• Sansom was given the unadvertised, $110,000-a-year job at the college on the same day he became House speaker last November. He resigned the job two months later after a firestorm of criticism statewide.

• The roughly $35 million in extra or accelerated funding the college got during the two years that Sansom controlled the House budget. Last year, Sansom added $24.5 million when the Department of Education had recommended $1 million in funding. Sansom has said the budget process is open and transparent and the final product is voted on by all lawmakers.

• The $6 million Sansom helped get for an emergency operations and training center at the college that is being built on the footprint of an aircraft hangar/emergency operations center that Sansom's friend Jay Odom wanted to construct with state money.

• The college trustees' meeting that Sansom helped arrange last spring with Richburg at a private club at Florida State University. The college publicized the meeting, but did so in a newspaper 150 miles from Tallahassee, raising questions about whether the public was properly notified of the meeting in accordance with the state's Sunshine Law.

WITNESSES

Witnesses included Okaloosa County emergency-management officials; former state Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, who was Senate appropriations chief for the two years that Sansom was House budget chairman; and House staffer Mike Hansen, Sansom's top budget aide.

A representative from the Department of Education answered questions as did a former staffer at the University Club.

Odom was invited to testify but did not show up.

While most witnesses left without commenting -- they are barred from discussing testimony but can make general statements -- a former Okaloosa County official who testified told reporters the airport building ``just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.''