Florida Legislator Resigns From College Post Amid Controversy

Ray Sansom, Florida’s Speaker of the House said he will step down from the $110,000-a-year post that he landed at Northwest Florida State College on the same day he was sworn in as speaker, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

According to the newspaper, Sansom, who was widely criticized for accepting the post of vice president for planning and development at NFSC last November after steering $25-million to the college, is facing a formal ethics complaint by a resident of Clearwater, Fla., who claims that the speaker violated a law that bars public servants from using their position to “secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for himself, herself or others.”

According to the Democrat, Samson, who has denied any impropriety, made the surprise announcement during a special legislative session this week, saying that while he took the NFSC post with “pure intentions,” he could not in good conscience allow the “controversy over my position at the college to divert our focus.”