College handed Sansom $122M wish list

The president of the college where Ray Sansom now works provided him with a "pricey" $122-million funding request over five years with the implicit expectation that Sansom would help "make it a reality."

Sansom, who got the request in February, took care of the first part. This year, he secured $25.5-million in the budget for a student services building at Northwest Florida State College -- $24.5-million more than the Department of Education requested.

Records obtained today by the Times/Herald show the college wanted $18-million in PECO funds in the upcoming fiscal year (at some point, the request was pared back to $13.2-million, a figure we already reported. The DOE has recommended only $748,000).

The big payoff was to come in Sansom's final year in the House, with $34-million. Then in the two years following, the college wanted an additional $45-million.

All told, the college laid out a five-year plan to obtain $122.5-million. "It's a pricey list ... hopefully we can make it a reality," President Bob Richburg wrote to Sansom on Feb. 26, 2008.

It was not the first time Richburg directly appealed to Sansom for funding. See below.

In August 2007, Richburg presented Sansom with a proposal for a "Northwest Florida Leadership Institute," a training center of sorts for business people at the college.

Sansom warmly embraced the idea -- "This looks great!! Next step?" -- and then pledged to find money. "I will get to work on funds," he wrote to Richburg.

The rest is history. Sansom inserted $750,000 in start-up money into the current budget for the institute -- a quiet move that cause tension with House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Comments

Funny... now we all know what is not going to get funded...

It doesn't bother me that the college wanted whatever they could get. It doesn't bother me that Sansom would work for his district, selfishly. It does bother me that he took the position with the college. At that point, he is just working for himself. He should have known better.

[Republican caring about education]

Somehow I think we need to look at some other education needs which may be of higher import? Like ethics training for Sansom and Richburg. All of the legislature could be invited to audit the course as well.

Okaloosa-Walton has about as much a chance of getting this money as do investors in Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme: zero

Thrasher created a medical school. Bense funded an unneccessary International airport among the sand spurs and pine trees.

Sansom is so podunk compared to them.
A hanger and a community college building? Small minds dream small apparently.

His sin, beyond his banality, is being too mediocre to make an honest living.

Maybe he and Blago can commiserate in Club Fed at Eglin.

All I can say is "Damn!" That's a lot of money!

Wow, I wish this paper would 'report' on Sands as much as it does 'Sansom'.

Everything Thrasher and Bense did went through the appropriate process and withstood the light of day.

in attractive budget years, YES, this might be something worth looking at. However, this is 2008/09. Have you see the revenue numbers? Everyone is being asked to tighten their belts, but this speaker decides to pile it on and carve out a BIG state salary job for him alone. This is unacceptable.

And this is why this individual MUST resign.

[Republican caring about education]

Remember Sansom's admonition to legislators in November that there was a tight budget this year and not to make requests for turkeys and pork?

where was all the expose reporting on the CSX closed door negotiations last year? I'm glad we blew this boondoggle up, but I hope you are just getting warmed up for the $500 million fiasco coming down the pike.....again! Somebody start asking questions about the Speaker designate's role in that one. How about Orlando Senators Chairing the Transportation and Judiciary Committees conveniently this year (the judiciary was the road block last year). There is your start, now get to work Steve, Alex & Co.

4:58 go back to your desk and wine about something important like why restaurants have to put your wine in a sealed bag for you to carry home. Now that was important legislation. Go back to your desk and work on getting your old pal in Hillsborough an appointment for the 17th time. Go back to your desk and ask yourself why is it every time you lose on an issue you make more enemies than friends and you make such a fool of yourself.

Ray, ask Rene Garcia how long his parachute job lasted. You better have a plan b.

The appropriate process, the Board of Regents, opposed Thrasher on the FSU medical school. That speaker then had the regents disbanded in a move that continues to destabilize the SUS.

Sansom will have to work hard to rank in the history of Florida corruption and stupidity.

He's got a good start, but he is still "little" league (as his cute aide ... the one banished to the district office ... tells her friends ).

[Un-f-ing-believable]

Are these people out of their f-ing MINDS? $122 MILLION DOLLARS for Northwest Bumf--k State College? Unbelievable.

Of course, the only request from the Dems is more medicaid, help to the elderly, and educccccation, right?
Hello pot, its kettle.

Alex, "-- a quiet move that cause tension with House Speaker Marco Rubio."--- please explain...

Of course, the only request from the Repubs is more sex in the mens room, right?
Hello Rep, it's the undercover cop.

Of course Sansom will be under no pressure when it comes to meeting NWF State College's funding requests... he should have resigned a month ago, Sansom is now trapped and will have to resign.

There are lots of great conservative Republicans who can serve as Speaker for the current term, Sansom is not one of them. He should resign and allow the caucus to move forward.

wake up Cannon! get this fixed now.

Cannon needs to jump to the front of the line now. Where is the guy? He is invisible.

Cannon, Weatherford,Dorworth,Winestein

After Sansom resigns, it will be nice to see the members actually elect a Speaker who has already spent a few years in the House already. This process of electing Speakers practically before they are even elected as MEMBERS is getting old.

[former R]

For the leader of a party which purports to be against government waste, this all should be TROUBLE. Where are the Republicans with a conscience, if there are any left, or an iota of courage? The Republican ideologues appear to have faded into the Bushes.

Who gets a $110,000 no show job in return for nothing... nobody. Sansom got those appropriations because he was going to get paid.

Everyone associated with Sansom, who now remains silent, needs to understand that this matter does not end with him. Corruption in our state government is a real problem that must be addressed in the next election cycle.

[Cynical Idealist]

I can't fathom why Sansom would settle for $110k a year on that job, unless, as has been posted earlier, he had the line on Richburg's seat, ofter the guy retired. Trouble is, I'm not sure there's anything illegal been done, but the SPT is doing its best to fan the flames into a scandal and Sansom, at some point, will probably take the bullet over the appearance that he's done something...Just another example of the press taking down someone and, consistently, missing the bigger picture.

What is Sansom still doing free, much less as Speaker of the House? He should be locked up!

Sansom must not be permitted to make any decisions with regard to the budget.

Have all the lefties forgotten about the Sands scandal and the sale of the US Senate seat in Illinois? Sansom has worked hard for his community and in North Florida you can easily see why these investments in Florida are needed. Kudos to Sansom for being a good representative for his community and investing in education.

COMMENTARY

By Dr. Sandra Frank

The thought of an agency assigned to protect our elderly and disabled committing fraud is unthinkable yet in 2003, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, who at the time was overseeing the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, received a letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Jan. 29, 2003.

The letter states the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) was cited for not providing complete and accurate case information, employing individuals who did not meet established minimum qualifications and seven other deficiencies. The state of Florida was placed on “high risk” of losing millions of dollars of federal funding from Medicaid and the MFCU had been placed on probation for a year. This information can be found in the State of Florida Attorney General’s yearly audit report.

Attorney General Crist had to act quickly and he only had one year to clean up this mess. What would it take to show HHS that Attorney General Crist was taking aggressive actions to correct the problems with the MFCU?

Should the MFCU go out and arrest all those they think maybe are committing Medicaid Fraud? Is that what happened? Look at the statistics from August 2007.

The statistics show the arrests made by the MFCU from July 2005 through February 2007.

1,270 cases. Were closed by MFCU. (That sounds great)

88 (7 percent) cases. Resulted in convictions or settlements. (Good job, so far)

1,182 (93 percent) cases. Lacked evidence or were unfounded. (what’s wrong with this?)

Is this considered significant?

What about the 1,182 cases and the people who were wrongfully accused? Did they become a part of the arrest statistics? Were the 1,270 arrests the reason the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lifted the probation? They would not be aware for at least one to two years that only 88 cases resulted in convictions and 1,182 cases were unfounded.

I remember when Crist was running for Governor; he stated he helped clean up Medicaid fraud. Did Gov. Crist create a witch hunt that would destroy thousands of lives of honest hard working people, just to arrest a few?

In the August 2007 Annual Audit most of the MFCU deficiencies had been corrected, except the MFCU was still not providing complete and accurate case information or as stated, “did not always include documentation”. Because the MFCU has been cited four years by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for not verifying information or not always providing documentation, would this be considered a pattern of misconduct as defined by Title 42, U.S.C.?

Sometimes I wonder if I should consider myself a martyr or a victim whose life was insignificant. The only problem is I do not want my life to be insignificant. I have worked all my life helping others, in the hope of leaving my son a legacy of integrity, compassion and commitment.

http://www.myflorida.com/audgen/pages/pdf_files/2006-028.pdf; page 11

http://www.myflorida.com/audgen/pages/pdf_files/2008-012.pdf 8-17-08

It would appear there is a scandal brewing at the medicaid fraud control unit. Federal investigations into the practices at the medicaid fraud control unit are already underway.

Sansom is a greedy pig. He has never done one thing for our community that didn't involve lining his own pocket. It looks like this devil is not going to get his due in this life. I hope Sansom burns in hell.

8:45 - please get back on your meds. You are sick.

I think shaking down members of your own party for committee assignments is just as repulsive. Sands, to quote 8:45, should 'burn in hell'. Oh, thats right, his bad juju caused him to lose all of his money.

I'm not defending Sands, but money that goes to the Democratic Party rather than lining your own pocket is different.

8:37---"Kudos to Sansom for being a good representative for his community and investing in education." Come on, he is giving that money to friends and himself... Sansom isn't helping his district as much as he is helping himself. Additionally he got the money by theft in the budget process.

How do Sansom's actions show a scintilla of the leadership necessary to be Speaker during these difficult budget times?

5:40-
It sounds like the person you are responding to touched a nerve. I assume you are referring to Dockery in all of those statements but i have to ask, if she lost on the CSX issue then why don't you have a train now? Food for thought. $500 million or $122 million....i know which one sounds like a bigger problem to me.

[Witch hunter found a witch]

9:17 don't forget it was OUR MONEY he was stealing for HIS benefit. At the worst possible time in terms of crying desperation in social services needs. And after warning other legislators NOT to do what he was at the time doing. And representing "leadership" of a party espousing careful management of government funds. Awful.

[Smitty]

ALL of the current House Members who have one ounce of honesty left in them should be calling for an investigation.
Trouble is ....do we have any honest ones out there ??
Our Representatives no longer represent the people, they represent themselves & their own wallets. What we MUST have happen is this:
Let the elected officials bring up legislation and THEN as citizens, once a month we will vote on it--through our computers hopefully. But, it is the only way to take back our government, it is corrupt as you can see.
Again, are any House Members out there with an ounce of honesty out there?
We'll have to wait and see !

[Glen S. McGhee]

It's not every day that you wake up to learn that the political corruption in Florida makes it Number One in nation!

But that's what the US Department of Justice is saying. We're even more corrupt than New York and Illinois, if you can believe that.
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/pin/docs/arpt-2007.pdf

Yet, after reading the investigative reporting regarding Rep Ray Sansom, it doesn't surprise me. It angers me, but it doesn't surprise me.

What does surprise me, however, is that there are reporters in Florida panhandle that can get to the bottom of a story by fearlessly following leads. We need more like them.

Joe Pickens, a former Florida legislator and former special counsel to the president of St. Johns River Community College has been recently chosen as the college’s new president, and the University of Florida hired state Sen. Mike Haridopolos for a lecturer position with a flexible schedule, even though he lacks a doctorate to make $75,000 a year.

Then there was FL Sen. Evelyn Lynn that gave up a high-paying position this year at an FSU research center that she helped to fund.

Oh, and what about former House speaker Marco Rubio who landed a $69,000 per year job at Florida International University this past summer?

It is time to close the revolving door that allows career politicians access to lucrative jobs in public education. We have limitations like this at the district level for School Board members, why not at the state level?

Corrupt college presidents and college boards shouldn't be able to buy lobbyists so easily. We need protections from this kind of predatory behavior by corrupt officials.

It is clear that the conflict of interest provisions in the F.S. need to be amended to include a firewall between Florida higher ed and legislators. Only a 5-year, conflict of interest ethics ban on the hiring of legislators and their staff can deter this kind of job-poaching. Legislators need to understand that the public education sector is not their private preserve for hunting high-paying, high-prestige jobs.

[razor]

10:02 Agree, except would allow those who were working at higher ed positions when they ran for office to continue. Legislative positions are meant to be part time and are paid as if they are part time. Otherwise all you get running are lawyers whose firm benefits from the business and pork spinoff of the legislative connection.
Suggest the Bob Graham Center for Government at UF might be best place to study this and make recommendations.

[True Republican]

At a boy! screw the tax payers that's what they are there for.

$122 million over five years of NEW spending in our dire financial condition?

Stupid.

For the love of God, can some of you Republican A-holes grow some freaking berries and get rid of this embarassing schmuck?