Testimony key in Ray Sansom inquiry

BY ALEX LEARY
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- A grand jury investigating former House Speaker Ray Sansom's ties to his hometown college as well as a developer resumed work Thursday and is ready to start calling witnesses on April 16.

''Some will be subpoenaed; some will be invited,'' Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs said. ``It's going to be an interesting day.''

Meggs, speaking to reporters as the jurors left the courthouse near the Capitol, would not say who will testify.

The testimony will be key in how the grand jury proceeds.

It can either hand up indictments or issue a non-criminal report, called a presentment, on its findings. Meggs said he believes the grand jury will be finished with the case by May.

The investigation was launched after Sansom, R-Destin, took an unadvertised $110,000 job at Northwest Florida State College.

News reports by the Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau showed how in the two years prior, Sansom secured about $35 million in extra or accelerated funding for the small school.

That total included $6 million for an emergency operations and training center at Destin Airport. Sansom added the money late in the budget process, drawing a ''turkey'' label and veto recommendation from a government watchdog group, TaxWatch.

The project has myriad links to an aircraft hangar Sansom's friend and major Republican donor Jay Odom wanted to build with $6 million in taxpayer money.

Meggs expects eight to 10 people will testify on April 16. Sansom and other key figures will likely not be subpoenaed because in doing so, they would be granted immunity from prosecution.

Instead, Meggs would invite them to speak. Sansom has already said he is willing to testify. In the uproar that followed as details were revealed, he quit the college job and then was ousted by fellow Republicans as speaker earlier this month.

Sansom has said the money he secured for the school was in the budget for all lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist to see. And he and college president Bob Richburg contend that the airport project was not intended to benefit Odom.

But the Herald/Times has shown various connections between the college building and the hangar project Odom had sought. The two-story building is part of a noise barrier Odom needs for his jet business to satisfy requirements with the city of Destin.