Ex-college president flips on Sansom, developer

TALLAHASSEE -- In a significant blow to former House Speaker Ray Sansom, one of his co-defendants in a scandal involving a $6 million airport building has agreed to turn state’s evidence against him and a developer.

The development came in court Friday when Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs said that ex-college president Bob Richburg is no longer a defendant in the case.

That likely means Richburg has cut a deal to testify against Sansom and developer Jay Odom, who allegedly conspired to get $6 million in the 2007 state budget for an airplane hangar in Destin.

An interview with investigators has Richburg saying: “Looking back in retrospect to the question of was I used by Mr. Sansom and Mr. Odom, I would answer it as follows: By funding this project through the college … Mr. Sansom accommodated a major constituent of his and turned the responsibility over to the college. He would then in essence be able to say go work your best deal to a college without ever having say no to a constituent if that constituent did not get all he wanted.”

An agreement released Friday shows Richburg will do 250 hours of community service and give $103,333 to Northwest Florida State College, a third of the $310,000 the college had to reimburse to the state.

That represents the amount of the $6 million that was spent planning the building. The college trustees scrapped the project when indictments were handed down.

All three faced grand theft charges and the trial had been scheduled to begin March 21.

Richburg was the longtime president of Northwest Florida State College and close to Sansom and Odom.

The scandal broke in 2008 when Sansom, R-Destin, took a six-figure job at the college on the same day he was sworn in as speaker of the Florida House.

The Herald/Times then reported a series of stories showing how Sansom funneled millions to the school, including money for the airport building.

He and Richburg insisted it was for an emergency operations and training center but records and other evidence pointed to Odom’s plan to use part of the building to store aircraft for his private jet business, which he built next door at Destin Airport.

Richburg, 65, became president of the small school in 1987. Over the course of his career, he left a mixed record.

Many say he expanded educational and financial opportunity in the Panhandle. He brought to campus a renowned arts center and symphony. He established a nursing program and started a charter high school.

But Richburg had plenty of detractors, too, and he has been in the middle of ample controversy. The airport deal led to his dismissal by the college board of trustees.

If Richburg were convicted, he would have faced numerous penalties including the loss of his state pension.

Richburg had been one of the so-called double dippers, a state employee who “retired” briefly then was rehired to the same job but with a pension. He got a lump sum of $553,228 in 2007 and started collecting a monthly pension of $8,803 in addition to his $228,000 annual salary.

In May 2009, the state put a freeze on his pension pending outcome of the criminal case.

This story was originally published March 12, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Ex-college president flips on Sansom, developer."