Sansom steps aside after 'very painful three months'

Citing the "grave pain" that negative publicity has caused his family, Ray Sansom announced Friday he was stepping down as state House speaker.

"It's been a very painful three months for me and my family," Sansom told the Northwest Florida Daily News. "There has been something in the paper somewhere in the state of Florida for the last three months."

Sansom has been under siege since November, when it was revealed he had accepted a $110,000 part-time vice president's job at Northwest Florida State College. As head of the House budget council, he helped steer about $31 million for construction projects to the college during the 2007 legislative session.

The Florida Commission on Ethics and a Leon County grand jury are investigating Sansom's actions.

Sansom resigned from the college job earlier this month.

Sansom, R-Destin, announced his decision to vacate the speaker's chair in a memorandum sent to House members. He appointed Speaker Pro-Tem Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, to preside in his place.

He said he will continue to represent District 4 in the House at the pleasure of Cretul.

He told fellow representatives he would remain on the sidelines until "any legal proceedings I face are resolved."

"Ongoing legal proceedings have temporarily created an inability for me to carry out my responsibilities as speaker," the memo said.

Sansom on Friday continued to maintain his innocence of any wrongdoing and said he was confident his name would be cleared relatively quickly.

"I'm completely innocent and it won't be long before that comes out," he said. "I'm cooperating. I'm ready to go testify."

Sansom maintains that the funds NWF State College received were allotted properly and approved for disbursement by the entire legislature and the governor.

He said he looks forward to showing grand jurors and ethics commission investigators that the allegations against him are based on erroneous information.

"Remember," he said. "The complaints are newspaper articles, South Florida newspaper articles. That's what the complaints are, nothing more."

Sansom started his day Friday at the Magnolia Grill restaurant in Fort Walton Beach, where he did a live radio interview at 7 a.m. on "Wake-Up Call" on WFTW/News Talk 1260.

Ken Walsh and Tom Rice, who conducted the interview, stayed away from the controversial topics and Sansom did not mention his decision to step down.

"I don't think I want to play poker with Ray Sansom if he can keep the face he had today," Rice said when news of the resignation reached him.

Sansom said he didn't know for sure at the time of the radio interview that he would be stepping down Friday.

But rumors that Sansom would vacate the Speaker's chair were zipping around the state by mid-morning. An e-mail from another Republican House member, J.C. Planas of Miami, that called for Sansom to step down spurred talk.

By noon, Sansom had announced his departure. Those who weren't dancing on his grave were decrying his fate.

"Today Sansom got sacked, and it was long overdue," Mark Ferulo, executive director of a group called Progress Florida, said in a statement.

"Floridians are tired of hypocrisy and abuse of power in our political system and Ray Sansom is the embodiment of both."

State Rep. Brad Drake, R-DeFuniak Springs, called Sansom's resignation "a very disheartening situation" and blamed it on "partisan politics."

"Ray Sansom is someone I placed a lot of trust in, and he's never violated that trust," Drake said. "I appreciate he would put his personal ambitions aside for the betterment of the state and the people we collectively represent."

State Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, said he felt Sansom made "the best decision" under the circumstances.

"This allows Florida not to have distractions as we move forward with our regular session" beginning the first week of March, Patronis said.

"I imagine this has been very stressful for (Sansom)," Patronis said. "He has a family he's raising, and on top of that, he puts the agenda together for the House when we meet."

Patronis did not say he felt Sansom used bad judgment in accepting the college position, but he understood why people were questioning it.

State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, issued a statement following Sansom's announcement.

"Stepping aside was the right choice, really the only choice," the statement said.

"The speaker of the House needs to concentrate on the people's business, which is becoming much more complicated and consuming with every passing day," Gaetz said in the statement. "For now at least, Ray Sansom needs to concentrate on answering the allegations against him and being with his family."

Gaetz said in the statement he would let the grand jury, courts and ethics commission weigh the allegations against Sansom. But he added that Northwest Florida State College President Bob Richburg should "face consequences" for his role in the botched hiring.

"Ray's a seasoned, veteran politician. This isn't anybody's first rodeo here and he has never attempted to throw the blame off," Gaetz said later in an interview.

"I did not know that Ray was going to go to work for Bob Richburg or that it was going to be handled the way it was. Had I known it and had I been asked for advice from my good friend Ray, I would have warned him off."

Richburg declined to comment on Gaetz's remarks other than to say his college has suffered consequences for its part in the Sansom hiring.

"We have faced a major consequence in losing a vice president of our college," he said.

Richburg said "it is my full expectation" that Sansom would be exonerated.

"The faith I have in Ray and the faith I have in the system is such that I feel he will be exonerated," Richburg said.

Sansom told the Daily News editorial board Jan. 19 that he had the support as speaker of Republicans and Democrats in House. He said Friday that there was no political pressure put on him to resign.

He said he already had decided to step down by the time he read Planas' e-mail calling for his resignation.