Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday announced a reshuffling of some staff positions as he heads into his second year in the executive office.

Carolyn Timmann, head of the governor’s open government office, is leaving with plans to run for circuit court clerk in Martin County, where she began her political career as an aide to former state Rep. Tom Warner, R-Stuart. Timmann is looking to succeed longtime Martin clerk Marsha Ewing, who announced plans not to seek her eighth term earlier this year.

 In the governor’s office, Timmann will be replaced by Bonnie Hazelton, who did open government work for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

Other changes: Tom Doughty will join the Executive Office of the Governor as Director of Information Technology, and Mike Dew and Julie Roberts have been promoted within the Governor’s Office of External Affairs.

A criminal investigation of former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom, recently indicted on charges of falsifying the state budget, has turned up e-mails related to the scandal that supposedly did not exist when The Palm Beach Post requested the documents from the legislature.¹

The Post asked Sansom’s office Dec. 10 to turn over the previous 20 days of e-mails that the Destin Republican had either sent and received. The request was made to gauge public reaction to news that Sansom may have received a six-figure job from Northwest Florida State College in exchange for funneling millions of state dollars to the school.

The Post also sought messages between Sansom and then-college President James “Bob” Richburg about the scandal.

The House responded with documents that showed Sansom neither sent nor received a single e-mail for 11 days.

But that is not true, prosecutors’ files show. Documents found by Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs reveal several e-mails from that time, including a conversation among Sansom, Sansom’s communication director and Richburg, who was fired for his involvement in the controversy.²

“We need to be concerned about this,” said Barbara Petersen, president of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, when told about the discovered e-mails. “I’m almost speechless when I see what the legislature is doing and how they’re doing it.”³

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1. The Palm Beach Post, 04/18/09: Ex-House speaker’s indictment blasts secret budget deals
2. Click here for the e-mails included in Meggs’ case file, but not in a public records request made to the House.
3. Petersen was chairwoman of Gov. Charlie Crist’s Commission on Open Records Reform. The panel issued a report in January that determined the legislature has rules for itself that may be inconsistent with state public records laws.