(Florida) Ray Sansom case shocker: Ex-college president flips on him, developer

seafan

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Sat Mar-12-11 11:34 PM
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(Florida) Ray Sansom case shocker: Ex-college president flips on him, developer

Source: St. Petersburg Times

TALLAHASSEE � The criminal case against former House Speaker Ray Sansom took a dramatic turn Friday as a co-defendant turned state's evidence and acknowledged that $6 million Sansom put in the state budget was to benefit a developer.

Bob Richburg, former president of the Panhandle college that got the money in 2007, portrayed the idea as one hatched by Sansom and Jay Odom, a friend and political contributor who wanted to use the building for his private jet business.

Asked if he knew at the time whether the building � ostensibly an emergency response and training center � was being placed at Destin Airport so Odom would benefit, Richburg flatly replied: "Yes."

.....

The scandal broke in late 2008 when Sansom, R-Destin, took a six-figure job at the college on the same day he was sworn in as speaker of the Florida House. He said he saw no conflict of interest.
The Times/Herald then reported a series of stories showing how Sansom used his powerful position as House budget chief to funnel tens of millions to the school, including $6 million for the airport building in 2007.

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/ray-sansom-case-shocker-ex-college-president-flips-on-him-developer/1156677

Remember:

The trial of former House Speaker Ray Sansom is to begin March 21. (AP)

Ray Sansom is the former hand-picked budget chief of then Speaker of the House Marco Rubio.

To put this another way, in 2007, while Marco Rubio was Speaker of the Florida House, his right-hand budget man was busy steering tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money to a project benefiting himself and two cronies. It's highly doubtful that Speaker Rubio did not know what his own budget chief was doing.

Interestingly, former Speaker Marco Rubio was busy himself in 2007, using his position to steer $48 million dollars of taxpayers' money to build the lavish Taj Mahal courthouse (1st District Court of Appeal) in Tallahassee. Rubio was even named in circulated e-mails as one of the "top heroes" in securing the legislative funding in a concurrent precipitous downturn in the state's economy. He claims he knew "nothing" about the courthouse funding.

"I have never heard of this list'' of heroes, Rubio said this week. "I was aware of a request to build a new courthouse for the 1st DCA, but it was not something I worked on as speaker.'

Funny, that, because Ray Sansom was Rubio's appropriations chairman at the time, and he remembers it differently:

Rubio, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, has repeatedly said the courthouse was a Senate project and the House knew nothing about the architectural plans. He said it was part of the last-minute House and Senate give and take.

Rubio's appropriations chairman, former Rep. Ray Sansom, remembers it differently.

In a recent interview, Sansom said $7.9 million included in the 2007-08 budget for courthouse "expansion'' was a Rubio priority. He said Rubio confirmed his support for the project several times between November 2006 and the end of the 2007 session.

He said 1st DCA Chief Judge Paul Hawkes frequently visited Sansom's office to remind him the project was a priority of the speaker's. As was Sansom's practice whenever someone said he had the speaker's backing, Sansom said he went to Rubio to make sure.

"I asked, and Speaker Rubio said yes, it was a priority and important to FSU to get a new building too,'' Sansom said, adding that nobody from the Senate contacted him about wanting money for the courthouse.

Gosh, did Mr. Rubio LIE?

Looks to me as if Mr. Sansom didn't hesitate to drop the dime on Rubio.

And today, we hear that one of Mr. Sansom's two co-defendants in the airplane hangar scandal has just dropped the dime on him, just ahead of the court trial.

Hopefully soon, we will air out Mr. Rubio's mountain of dirty laundry, including his frequent use of the GOP American Express Card to pay for personal expenses.

And, hopefully, it will expand to the current leadership of the House (Dean Cannon) and Senate (Mike Haridopolos), along with Sen. John Thrasher and Bill McCollum, in their dealings with Jim Greer, former head of the RPOF.

There is systemic corruption in Tallahassee, and it must be cleaned out.