The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct wrapped up its business this morning in the wake of former House Speaker Ray Sansom’s resignation last night.

Committee Chairman Bill Galvano:

“As a result of Speaker Sansom’s resignation as a member of the Florida House, further action by this committee is rendered moot. We’re without authority to fulfill the charge of this select committee,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said.

Attorney General Bill McCollum continues to defer to GOP party leaders instead of ordering an investigation into possible criminal conduct regarding credit card abuses at the Republican Party of Florida.

McCollum today said he may ask the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look into the matter but that he would wait until the new chairman of the RPOF – expected to be Sen. John Thrasher – is elected this weekend.

Also today, Florida Democrats shut down McCollum’s anti-corruption hotline, filling up the 800 number’s voice mail in an effort to draw attention to McCollum’s refusal to investigate the credit card charges even after other top Republicans want the books opened.

McCollum said he won’t ask for inquiry until an audit of the RPOF is complete and he gets direction from the new party chairman to move although Gov. Charlie Crist last week said that party officials should open the books now.

“I’m waiting about what the new chairman might discover. I don’t see any evidence at this point of criminal behavior,” McCollum said today after a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business.

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By KATHLEEN HAUGHNEY
The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Attorneys for former state House Speaker Ray Sansom tried today to dismiss charges that the Destin Republican broke the law when he steered millions of dollars to Northwest Florida State College and appeared to benefit from the process.

Sansom, Okaloosa County developer Jay Odom and former college President Bob Richburg have been indicted on official misconduct charges. Sansom and Richburg each face an additional perjury charge for allegedly lying to a Leon County grand jury. They are scheduled to stand trial at the end of this month.

The case hinges on Sansom’s power as budget chairman in 2007-08 to steer millions of dollars to the college.
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A criminal investigation of former state House Speaker Ray Sansom has recovered e-mails that a state college failed to release as part of a public record requests from The Palm Beach Post.

The e-mails were among nearly two dozen that Northwest Florida State College officials recently turned over to Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs but failed to release to media outlets that requested the same documents. In November, The Post asked the college to provide all communications between Richburg and Sansom from 2007 and 2008.

Similarly, The Post reported last week that Meggs’ case file includes e-mails to and from Sansom that House officials insisted did not exist.

More here.

Gov. Charlie Crist had few words to say about a new perjury charge against disgraced former House Speaker Ray Sansom handed down by a grand jury today. The grand jury indicted the Destin Republican for misuse of office last month.

“Obviously we have a criminal justice system that’s working its way through the grand jury. I have enormous respect for their work,” Crist said this afternoon.

The governor sidestepped questions about whether Sansom should resign.

“I think that’s a decision for a different day,” he said.

UPDATE: We were provided the wrong letter earlier. This post was updated to include the correct letter and correct names.

More fallout from the prescription drug bill:

Speaker Designate Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park was among 13 Republican leaders who sent this letter Gov. Charlie Crist today asking him to veto a bill to create a prescription drug database. The letter is in reaction to a story about a similar database getting hacked in Virginia and held for ransom.

It’s probably worth pointing out 10 of the 13 were the only “no” votes against the bill in either chamber. The three other Republicans – Adam Hasner of Boca Raton, Anitere Flores of Miami and Dean Cannon of Winter Park – did not vote when the bill was debated in the chamber.

Meanwhile, Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, sent this e-mail to Florida drug czar Bill Janes asking him to join in the call for a veto.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Marcello Llorente, a Miami Republican who told Post on Politics that Crist should still sign the measure into law:

“There are numerous safeguards in the legislation to ensure the protection of personal information. I am confident the Task Force created in the bill will yield recommendations that uphold the highest level of security for personal information contained within the database. The tragic deaths of almost ten Floridians a day must stop. I urge the Governor to sign this bill expeditiously in an effort to end the practice of doctor shopping and help ensure that pill mills enabling the senseless loss of life are put out of business.”

Budget negotiations should be more open, Senate President Jeff Atwater said this morning.

Atwater said that the Senate rules governing which talks should be public and when that should happen might need to be changed to at least give the appearance of openness.

“It’s necessary,” the North Palm Beach Republican told reporters after a briefing with the Senate Democratic caucus. “It’s important for us to be as open as we can in this process.”

Atwater held a meeting with Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, Sen. Mike Haridopolos and Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson this weekend inside the Capitol.

Meetings between three or more senators are required to be noticed and open to the public. The Capitol was locked over the weekend.

Atwater said the meeting was unplanned and the group happened to be in the Capitol at the same time and that he ran into Lawson after the Democrat grabbed some ice cream in the Senate member lounge.

Budget leaders have yet to order a public conference committee to begin hashing out their differences.

But throughout the week, House and Senate leaders have traded written budget offers dealing with “allocations,” or how much revenue they will have to spend. The back-and-forth proposals have included high-level proposals in which the House agreed to a cigarette tax, a measure which was never heard in committee.

The longer the behind-closed-doors negotiations drag on, the more questions are being raised about the lack of transparency in crafting the state’s $65 billion budget.

A grand jury last week condemned the budgetary process, saying it was not open enough and gave powerful lawmakers the ability to sneak items into the budget with little or no oversight. That grand jury indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom for putting money for an airport hangar into the budget during a private meeting with his Senate counterpart when he was the House budget chairman.

“Part of the concerns that have been raised is that people think we’re running a parallel side-by-side track, that I might just be having conversations on allocations when someone else is actually getting into specific line items and trading bills.
That’s not going on. The longer that thins has gone on the greater that perception may be created that people think that’s actually taking place and it’s not,” Atwater said.

“If it would be helpful that the allocation process could be more open I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” he said.

He said that his conversations with House Speaker Larry Cretul about the cigarette tax were not “in any way some kind of mysterious kind of conversation.”

“I think everyone in Florida knows we’ve been discussing the tobacco surcharge,” Atwater said.

Folks who use mirrors to look up women’s dresses or down their shirts better beware.

A Senate panel approved a measure that would broaden the video voyeurism laws to make the practice illegal. Current law prohibits peeping Toms from using electronic devices, like video cameras, to peer at others’ privates but does nothing to bar them from doing the same with a mirror.

Sen. Dave Aronberg filed the measure in response to a Panhandle case in which a man used a mirror to peer up a woman’s skirt at a bookstore.

The judge in that case noted that “there is is no clear prohibition of this reprehensible conduct anywhere in the state of Florida.”

Aronberg, D-Greenacres, provided a simple explanation of the bill (SB 1064) during a rushed Senate Judiciary Committee meeting this morning: “Means you can’t look up women’s skirts using a mirror.”

Legislation that would make it easier for foster kids to get access to their records passed unanimously out of a Senate committee today.

The bill (SB 126) lays out a process for current and foster kids to follow when denied access to their records.

The bill, approved unanimously by the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, also would give potential foster and adoptive parents more access to records about children they are considering taking into their care.

Foster kids who have aged out of the system have run into trouble getting a range of public records, including photographs of their biological parents and even addresses of where they have lived.

Read more about the problems here.

[caption id="attachment_4574" align="alignright" width="75" caption="Haridopolos"][/caption]A Democratic-backed bill to end a real estate tax loophole, which has been costing the state as much as $200 million a year, got the support of one of the Senate’s most tax-hating Republicans this morning.

The loophole allows sellers to avoid paying a state tax — the documentary stamp fee collected on real estate deals — by arranging transactions so they aren’t classified as sales of real property.

In a Palm Beach County deal three years ago, three properties sold collectively for $600 million but reaped only $2.10 in doc stamps.

Because of the loophole, the state lost $4.2 million, something Florida can ill afford to continue given its current economic anemia, argued Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, the bill (SB 2430) sponsor.

“If we had sold 1,500 homes priced at $400,000, it would have generated the amount of money generated on that one sale of $600 million,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, said at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting this morning.
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Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson pushed Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander to expedite the release of Florida’s share of the federal economic stimulus package to get the state’s jobless back to work.

Alexander agreed that lawmakers need to move quickly to get the money already available for road and water projects that could create jobs the fastest.

He said he’d like to get the budget committees working on passing bills as early as tomorrow to appropriate the federal funds for the construction projects and for Medicaid spending. Depending on the House’s position, the legislature could pass the budget amendments as early as next week, he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Don Winstead to act as the state’s “recovery czar” last week.

But despite the necessary legislative approval for the spending to begin, Winstead has yet to meet with Alexander.

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House lawmakers this morning officially elected Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, as the speaker of the House for the next two years. He replaces Rep. Ray Sansom, R-Destin, who was forced to step down after questions were raised about his relationship with Northwest Florida State College.

“Unless you have been out of the country or away from the district, you know the challenges we are facing,” Cretul said to the chamber opening up the 2009 legislative session this morning. “And it’s an uphill battle for all of us.”

Stephan Kahn, the former Senate attorney, was hired today to investigate an ethics complaint against Speaker Ray Sansom, R-Destin, according to announcement from House Speaker Pro Tempore Larry Cretul.
Kahn, who left the Senate in 2007, will earn $300 per hour.

House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Cretul made some leadership changes this morning as he transitions into replacing Ray Sansom.
Cretul, R-Ocala, named Rep. Dean Cannon, the Orlando Republican slated to take over as House leader in 2010, as head of the Select Policy Council on Strategic and Economic Planning.
Other changes:
Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, will take over for Cretul as chairman of the Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review. Galvano, was vice-chairman of the committee, keeps his Rules committee chairmanship as well. Rep. Sandy Adams, R-Oviedo, is now vice chairwoman of the gaming committee.
Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, will take over as head of the Finance and Tax Council, replacing Cannon.
Rep. Ray Sansom, the Destin Republican who stepped down as speaker last week, will chair the Policy Council and also will serve on the Finance and Tax and Rules councils.
Cretul said wants Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Sarasota, to replace him as Speaker Pro Tem after Cretul is elected as Speaker when the House convenes in March.

Ray Sansom, seated in the back of the House chamber, and his fellow House Republicans voted at 9:17 p.m. tonight to elect Ocala real estate broker Larry Cretul as the leader of their caucus. The move effectively removes Sansom from power and designates Cretul as House speaker for the next two years.
“I think it’s probably fair to say that all of us would probably rather be somewhere else tonight,” Cretul, above, said after the vote. “But the circumstances require us to come together. … Thank you for your support.”
The 16-minute emergency meeting — proof House leaders can keep a meeting short and to the point when they want — was just the latest chapter in a tumultuous two months for Sansom, who, as recently as Friday, had hoped to only briefly step aside while he faces a grand jury inquiry.
“You’re being asked to make a choice between confusion, disorder and uncertainty or clarity, order and stability,” Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton said to open the meeting. “Let’s move forward.”

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House Speaker Pro-Tempore Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, above left, is expected to be voted in as Republican leader of the Florida House tonight, a position that will effectively make him the next speaker, replacing Ray Sansom, who stepped aside Friday in the face of a grand jury inquiry and an ethics complaint.
In his first press conference, Cretul stumbled a few times while trying to figure out when to use possessive or plural pronouns, handed a some questions off to House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, above right, and relied on some self-deprecating humor to get him through his 24-minute press confercence.
Cretul named a new chief of staff – former Rep. Dudley Goodlette of Naples who will earn $150,000 for the job – but generally said he isn’t planning making to many changes – not surprising since Cretul, along with Hasner, were two lawmakers in Sansom’s inner circle at the Capitol.
“I did not campaign for this position. I have no promises to fulfill,” Cretul said. “I have no ambition other than spending time with my grandsons. And they are the only ones I hope to impress.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, said this afternoon is isn’t abandoning his attempt to become speaker but acknowledged that it would almost take another meltdown in the chamber over the next few hours for him to be successful.
“If I were a betting man, I’d say Larry Cretul will be speaker by the end of the evening. Maybe even with a unanimous vote,” Domino said.

House Rules Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, issued his opinion this afternoon on whether Speaker Ray Sansom can temporarily step down from his position.
Bottom line is that Galvano wants another election held as soon as possible. He also writes that he will refused to be nominated, clearing a path for Speaker Pro-Tempore Larry Cretul to be installed as “Republican leader.” Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, is also interested in the top spot.
Technically, the House cannot elect a new speaker until they formally meet in session. The annual spring session is scheduled to start March 3.
Read Galvano’s letter here.
Meanwhile, Cretul is expected to name former state Rep. Dudley Goodlette as his chief of staff, replacing Mike Hansen, a state budget expert who served in the position for Sansom.

Who’s in charge? The seven Republicans trying to iron out the unprecedented political chaos in the chamber need to find a way to heed Dan Webster’s seemingly simple advice: “The solution is finding a leader, empowering that leader and getting behind them.”

Is Sansom even allowed to temporarily recuse himself from the speaker’s office? That decision may come down to a judgment from House Rules Committee Chairman Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican who, by several accounts, would like to permanently replace Sansom with himself. In the meantime, a House attorney hired by Sansom opined in this memo that the temporary hand-off of power is legit.

What’s the agenda? Even with Ray Sansom in power, there were few clues as to what policies the House leadership would make a priority this year. The only real priority for Sansom, who was consumed by the budget when he wasn’t overwhelmed by his controversy with the college, seemed to be streamlining state permitting processes.

What to do with Sansom? Right now he has no committee assignments and no bills. The last time a House lawmaker with no leadership position also had no committee assignments was Bob Allen, who offered sex to an undercover male officer and eventually left the legislature altogether.

What happens to the ethics complaint against Sansom? Galvano was supposed to consider it, but instead asked Speaker Pro-Tempore Larry Cretul to hand it over to an independent investigator. So if Cretul is acting speaker now, who is handling the duties of the speaker pro-tempore?

Will the House Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review continue? This is the panel that is supposed to recommend whether lawmakers should approve Gov. Charlie Crist’s push to expand gambling at Seminole casinos. The chairman of that group is Cretul (who also has spots on the Finance & Tax and Rules councils). The vice chairman? Bill Galvano.

How will the chaos reflect on Dean Cannon? The Orlando Republican is supposed to be speaker for the 2011 session. Had he been officially given the “speaker designate” title by his caucus, he’d be the acting speaker now, not Cretul. He might be relieved not to be thrust into the role under current political and economic conditions, but without the designation in his back pocket, he’ll want a smooth transition now to ensure his own transition later.

Read our account of the day here.
And continue reading below to see more front pages from around the state.

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Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom of Destin, right, resigned temporarily recused his position today — perhaps the first time a scandal has forced a House speaker to step down — handing power to fellow Republican Rep. Larry Cretul of Ocala and raising questions about the chamber’s legislative agenda.
“Effective immediately, I have decided to recuse myself from the exercise of my duties as Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Sansom said in a statement. “Ongoing legal proceedings have temporarily created an inability for me to carry out my responsibilities as speaker.”
While some Republican leaders say the move is temporary, pending the outcome of a grand jury inquiry and several ethics complaints focused on Sansom, other members have expressed hope that the chamber will only be subjected to one transition of power.
“These allegations have been difficult,” said state Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart. “The speaker’s eye has to be on the ball and right now the ball is the economy and the budget.”

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