Sansom Scrutiny
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Updated: 8:20 AM Dec 30, 2008
Sansom Scrutiny
The heat is being turned up on House Speaker Ray Sansom of Destin over his new job at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville. Sansom steered 25 million state dollars to the school last year, before being hired as an administrator in November. Now, a Pinellas County man filed an ethics complaint against the embattled speaker.
Posted: 9:50 PM Dec 29, 2008
Reporter: Whitney Ray

Ray Sansom
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The heat is being turned up on House Speaker Ray Sansom of Destin over his new job at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville. Sansom steered 25 million state dollars to the school last year, before being hired as an administrator in November. Now, a Pinellas County man filed an ethics complaint against the embattled speaker.

As Representative Ray Sansom was preparing to take over as Florida’s Speaker of the House, news of his 110-thousand dollar part-time job at Northwest Florida State College was beginning to surface. Sansom used his political clout to funnel 25 million state dollars to the school.

Eric Jotkoff of the Florida Democratic Party is crying foul.

“Speaker Sansom, over the past month, it’s been exposed that he’s been involved in what’s allegedly a massive conspiracy.”

Some of the money Sansom steered to the college is being used for campus construction.

Six million will go to build an airplane hanger at the Destin Airport. The Florida Democrats asked the Governor, the Attorney General and the US Attorney’s Office to investigate.

So far the party’s requests for investigations have been fruitless, but now a citizen is getting involved sending a letter to the ethics commission asking for a full investigation.”

The commission isn’t allowed to discuss complaints that haven’t been released to the public. If they choose to investigate they could suggest fines, impeachment or both.

When the Florida Commission on Ethics suggests a penalty for a lawmaker, it sends its findings to legislative leaders. The leaders can then form a committee to decide whether or not to carry out the suggested punishment.

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