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Fla. House Speaker defends funds for his employer

By Staff | Dec 7, 2008

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Before accepting a fundraising job this year at a state college, Republican Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom secured millions for building projects for the school, according to newspaper reports.

One of the projects he helped secure for Northwest Florida State College was an airport building and hurricane proof hangar. In 2007, Sansom directed $6 million to build the emergency training center at the Destin Airport, on land controlled by Sansom’s friend, developer and jet business owner Jay Odom, according to The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times in Sunday’s editions. Odom has been a generous contributor to Sansom’s campaign.

Sansom has directed millions in tax money to the school in recent years. He also pushed legislation giving the institution its state college designation in June.

Groundbreaking is about to begin on the two-story, 30,000 square-foot building, which will be used by emergency officials during natural disasters. But the manager of Odom’s airport operation, Bill Blackford, says the building will also be used to store Odom’s jets. Architectural plans from the college also show an “aircraft hangar” and “aircraft-related occupancies.”

Odom sought state money for a similar project last year at the same site, but didn’t get any funds.

Sansom often flies around the state on official business in Odom’s aircraft, paid for by the GOP. His district legislative office is rented space in a building owned by Odom. And Odom’s Crystal Beach Development gave $100,00 on Sept. 4 to a political committee controlled by House Republican leaders, including Sansom. In 2006-07, Odom’s companies gave Sansom $16,000, according to the newspapers reports.

Odom says he has no plans to store his jets at the college facility and college officials say there’s “no agreement” to put jets in the new building.

Sansom says the facility is an Emergency Operations Center on a college campus that will provide training and college classes for first responders just like many others on campuses around the state.

The building “does nothing in the world to benefit any individual, Jay Odom or anyone else,” Sansom said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday. “I believe that after years in office people would know that I would not do anything to get something funded for a job or to better myself. I believe in what we’re doing.”

“It wasn’t as if I was looking for a job,” Sansom said of the period before he took the $110,000 a year post as chief of the fundraising department at Northwest Florida State, his alma matter. Sansom was employed with a utility company at the time.

“I’m trying to be speaker with a very clear and precise message. I want to do what’s best for Florida, not what’s best for my personal career.”

But the college that employs Sansom has certainly benefited.

Sansom never submitted a formal Community Budget Issue Request, but added the $6 million airport project to a list funded by money for school construction. That changed the focus from an emergency operations center to an education facility.

Also in this year’s budget, Sansom transformed a $1 million appropriation into $25.5 million to add space to the college’s main campus. He also added $750,000 for a college leadership institute, the newspapers reported, and he tacked on a few million for a new 2,400 seat basketball arena that will double as a hurricane shelter.

Odom, a real-estate developer and owner of Destin Jet, already has storm-proof hangars at the airport, but they will not fit bigger aircraft. He sought state funding for a similar project through the city of Destin last year. That plan also included hardening a facility Odom was building, which would be used by emergency officials when needed. City officials passed a resolution asking the state for $6 million.

A message left for Odom at Destin Jet was not immediately returned to The Associated Press on Sunday. A home listing could not be found. Odom told the newspapers that Blackford was “confused” and “mistaken” when he said Odom planned to use the facility for jet storage.

Odom’s hangars have been built, but the college facility won’t begin construction until early next year, the newspapers reported.

Sansom, a former Okaloosa County commissioner, said he’s always wanted an emergency staging area for Destin because the area is vulnerable during storms and the facility could be a safe place for responders to coordinate.