Amid criminal probe, Florida House Speaker
might quit -- for now

By Alex Leary and Marc Caputo
Miami Herald Reporters
© 2009 Miami Herald
Friday, January 30, 2009

Rep. Ray Sansom might step down as leader of the Florida House of Representatives Friday afternoon, less than a day after fellow Republicans said his legal troubles have become too much of a distraction for the Legislature to handle, sources said.

The Destin Republican is under criminal investigation in connection with a hometown developer and an unadvertised job he accepted at Northwest Florida College, to which he steered $30 million in public funds.

Sansom, who has maintained his innocence, has since resigned that $110,000 job. Neither he nor spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin could be reached.

Sansom is expected to issue a statement later today. Two House Republicans say Sansom is considering leaving the top job only temporarily, relinquishing his duties to Speaker Pro Tempore Larry Cretul of Ocala in the meantime.

If he's cleared of all wrongdoing, Sansom would like to resume his duties as Florida House Speaker, the Republicans said.

Tallahassee State Attorney Willie Meggs is examining whether a state open-meetings law was broken during discussions Sansom attended to convert Northwest Florida College into a four-year degree school. Meggs also might examine a $6-million airport building Sansom got money for in 2007.

The college said it will use the money to build a emergency training and response facility, though questions have been raised by the Times/Herald about whether a developer and Sansom ally, Jay Odom, planned to use it for his private jet operation.

Legislative sources said other top Republicans asked Sansom on Thursday night to resign his leadership post. Sansom would likely keep his position as a state representative for Destin.

The first House Republican to publicly ask Sansom to step down was Miami Republican Rep. J.C. Planas, who told the Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee bureau earlier this morning that Sansom needed to focus on mounting a legal defense -- not running the Florida House.

Planas said he didn't know Sansom planned to step down when he called on him to leave his post. Planas said called and e-mailed Sansom, asking him to quit the top job.

In speaking out publicly about such a sensitive matter, Planas said he understood he could be isolating himself from fellow Republicans and that he could be stripped of some of the committee assignments given to him by Sansom, including his chairmanship of the Public Safety and Domestic Security Committee.

But Planas said he decided to go public anyway because the state faces too much of a fiscal crisis for the House to concentrate so heavily on Sansom's legal troubles.

Here's a transcript of an interview with

Planas: ``Ray needs to step down. It's nothing personal. It's professional. His situation has become a distraction -- for Republicans, for the House and for the state. There are businesses in Florida about to go under. I mean, these are serious times. And what we did in the special session with all these cuts was a warm-up. Things are going to get worse. We have a crisis on our hands and we need to focus on that. We need to keep the courts open, protect schools and healthcare. In the interest of making sure we debate those ideas fully and not get sidetracked by all this, it's not the time for him to be speaker.''

Q. Do you think Sansom broke the law?

Planas: ``I don't think Ray had criminal intent. That's not Ray Sansom. He's a good man. And he's a good leader. But this isn't the time for him to lead. He needs to focus on his case too much. I hope he'll be exonerated. I believe he'll be exonerated. I believe he had no intent in violating the law. He needs to let this play out in the arena of the courts, in another arena other than as speaker of the Florida House.''

Q. What about being isolated by fellow Republicans, stripped of committee assignments or facing other consequences?

Planas: ``I can't think about that. Maybe one of the freedoms of term limits is you can't always think about politics. You have to remember what it means to do the right thing, say what you think without worrying about the political ramifications. I can't think about politics.''

Q. What are you hoping to accomplish here? What's in it for you?

Planas: ``All I'm hoping for is the best, for all of us. We need to be free of this distraction.''

Q. Who have you spoken with?

Planas: ``I've talked to friends, buddies, some law partners and my own family. My uncle and father are harassing me. The say this is overdue. I've talked to some of my fellow lawmakers. They think I'm crazy.''

Q. You and Miami Republican Rep. Marcelo Llorente initially were one of only two Dade Republican holdouts against Sansom for speaker. What do you say to those who would accuse you of having sour grapes because your guy, Rep. Bill Galvano, lost the speakership race?

Planas: ``No. It's not about that. It's about being free of a distraction that is taking up too much of our time when we have such important work. If he steps down, the Republican conference should decide Ray's replacement. Maybe by secret ballot, maybe by voice vote. Whatever is best.

Q. So you're not calling for a vote of no-confidence?

Planas: No. This is up to Ray. But this is what I think is best.

Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com.