House committee to begin meetings on Sansom this month

The select House committee appointed to consider sanctions against state Rep. Ray Sansom won’t meet until the end of July, its chairman said Wednesday.

When the five-member committee does begin its work, it will conduct an investigation “very much like a judicial hearing,” said state Rep. Bill Galvano, the Bradenton Republican who will head the proceedings.

Galvano said testimony will be taken and evidence will be reviewed as the committee tries to decide what, if any, punishment it should recommend the full state House take against its former speaker.
    All meetings will be open and publicly noticed, according to Jill Chamberlin, spokeswoman for House Speaker Larry Cretul.
Sansom could face a reprimand, censure or expulsion from the House if the committee, composed of three Republicans and two Democrats, agrees with a special counsel’s finding that probable cause exists for disciplinary action.
The full House would be asked to vote on a committee recommendation.
In a lengthy report filed Friday, Stephen Kahn, a former legal attaché for the state Senate, found probable cause that Sansom had compromised the integrity of the House in three instances.
    Allthreeoftheviolations Kahn cited involved Sansom’s dealings with Bob Richburg, former president of Northwest Florida State College.
    Both men have been indicted on criminal charges for what a Leon County grand jury called their efforts to use state funds to obtain an airplane hangar for local developer Jay Odom.
    Two of the violations Kahn found involved state funds funneled to the college. The third was a meeting that the state’s attorney general termed “suspicious” as a possible violation of the state’s open meetings law.
    Galvano said he did not know whether Sansom would testify.
    “How he proceeds is going to be, in large part, based on his judgment and the judgment of his attorney,” he said.

Neither Sansom nor his attorney, Stephen Dobson, was available for comment Wednesday.

Galvano said the committee’s work could be complicated by outside forces. A pending ethics commission complaint filed against Sansom could be completed, for instance. If so, the findings would be turned over to the committee, he said.

Also, with a criminal case pending against Sansom — he faces official misconduct and perjury charges — 5th Amendment issues could come into play, Galvano said.

Republicans Faye Culp and Rich Glorioso and Democrats Joe Gibbons and Ari Porth are also on the committee.

The panel will not have an organizational meeting until late July because at least one member, Culp, is out of town until July 13, Galvano said. There also are logistical matters that need to be worked out, he said.

Gibbons, D-Pembroke Park, said he wasn’t sure what to expect when the committee begins its work.

“I don’t have the facts,” he said.

“I believe half of what I see and none of what I hear,” he said. “I can’t have a foregone conclusion. I don’t know anything. I have to have an open mind, which I do.”

One issue that could prove a sticking point is Glorioso, R-Plant City, having received a $500 campaign contribution from developer Jay Odom, who has been indicted along with Richburg and Sansom in the alleged hangar conspiracy.

Sansom delivered the check.

Galvano said House Speaker Cretul must decide whether the contribution constitutes a conflict of any sort, but added that Odom’s donation was provided several years ago.

“And from what I know of Rich (Glorioso), I find it unlikely that he would be influenced by a single campaign contribution,” Galvano said.

Galvano and Sansom also have a history. The two competed in 2004 for the House speaker seat that Sansom held from November 2008 and February of this year.

Sansom said after he won the speaker’s post that Galvano would have an important place on his leadership team. He made good on that promise when he appointed Galvano chairman of the powerful Rules and Calendar Council.

Galvano said his close ties to Sansom won’t affect his impartiality as committee chairman.

“It doesn’t mean it’s easy,” he said. “But I understand what is being asked of me as a committee member and I will serve in a fair and balanced manner.”