Trustees Fire Richburg

From the Tampa Bay newspaper blog, The Buzz: "The trustees of Northwest Florida State College just voted to fire president Bob Richburg, the man who hired Rep. Ray Sansom and was indicted along with him earlier this month. The vote was 4 to 3." More here.

Richburg Rumpus

Northwest Florida College's president, Bob Richburg, is facing trial on state felony charges. Now, he has more to worry about.

A self-described "muckraker" with "no ax to grind" -- retired Air Force officer Alan Vafides of Fort Walton Beach-- has filed a state ethics complaint against Richburg for failing to disclose his close business ties with former state senator Charlie Clary. Ditto that last for college board member Jody Henderson.

Meanwhile, governor Charlie Crist says he'll be "asking" the college to return the $6 million previously steered toward the college to build an airport hangar for his developer buddy, Jay Odom.

The trustees can't be happy to have their names associated with this spreading scandal. But, can they summon the courage at today's "special session" to fire Richburg? If not, we expect to see soon a number of them resigning in order to "spend more time with the family."

Sansom Missing in Action

Did the judge impound Ray Sansom's Florida passport when he released the indicted legislator on bail? The Destin Republican is missing in action in Tallahassee, precisely as Florida lawmakers get down to serious horse trading in the closing days of the legislative session.

Can Northwest Florida College Trustees be Trusted?

One aspect of the Ray Sansom/Bob Richburg scandal that hasn't been getting enough scrutiny is what, if any, role the members of the college's Board of Trustees played. Among other things, college boards of trustees in Florida have responsibility for establishing and enforcing recruiting and hiring policies, advertising their own public trustee meetings, and evaluating "the performance of the community college presidents... ."

It sure looks like, collectively, the "Northwest Florida College" Board of Trustees has a lot to answer for. Among other things:

• They turned a blind eye, to be charitable about it, toward the obviously fixed hiring of Destin politician Ray Sansom as a "part-time" college vice-president at a salary of $110,000 per year, when he didn't even meet the minimally-advertised job qualifications.
• In 2007, the trustees accepted college president Bob Richburg's "resignation" so he could collect over half a million dollars in accumulated state pension benefits, and then the board re-hired him in the same job with a three percent raise just one month later -- after what no one could call a bona fide nationwide advertising campaign to fill the post with the best qualified candidate. Even conservative Republicans were outraged at that one.
• The Northwest Florida College Trustees acquiesced a year ago, when Richburg set up one a March board meeting in a private "members only" Tallahassee club 150 miles away from the campus, then they defended the action afterward when Florida's attorney general called the meeting legally questionable and likely a violation of the Sunshine Law.
  
• No minutes of that "legislative update" meeting were taken by or for the trustees -- yet ten months later they approved supposed "minutes" of what took place, just as prosecuting attorneys were about to empanel a grand jury.

So, who are these "Northwest Florida College" Trustees? To all appearances, the board is drawn 100% from the local business community. By contrast, a new nationwide survey of state and local community colleges -- and that's what "Northwest Florida College" really is, hyped-up name to the contrary notwithstanding -- finds that, nationwide, only 32% of trustees on boards "were from the business sector."

None of the present members of the Okaloosa-Walton county college appears to be renown in higher education circles for, or to have demonstrable expertise in, academic administration, management, college teaching, or research. Now, we could be wrong. Maybe the otherwise prosaic-looking composition of the Northwest Florida College board of trustees masks a John Dewey clone, a Warren Buffet heir, or a fund-raising genius.

To find out more about the trustees, however, could it be symptomatic of some deeper malady that the college's web site directs us to call the "Marketing Department?"

All of the trustees, no doubt, volunteer their time because they want to serve the college and the local community. For that, they doubtless deserve the standard round of politely appreciative applause.

But community college trustees have something else, too: fiduciary and legal obligations, as described in State Board of Education rules. They are required to establish college policies and hold executives accountable for following them.

When two of the top administrators "hired" by the college trustees are indicted by a grand jury for college-connected activities, and the legality of the board's own conduct is called into question by the state's attorney general, it's well past time for someone on the state Board of Education to be asking, "Who are these trustees and what on earth have they been doing?"

Elizabeth S. Campbell (business owner)
McCaskill & Co.
P.O. Box 369
Destin, FL 32540

Joseph W. Henderson (CPA)
O'Sullivan Creel
P.O. Box 1600
Fort Walton Beach FL 32549

Brian S. Pennington
Tybrin Corporation
1030 Titan Court
Fort Walton Beach FL 32547

Dale E. Rice, Jr. (CEO/President)
First National Bank of Crestview
1301 Industrial Drive
Crestview FL 32539

Sandy Sims
Gulf Power Company
1 Energy Place
Pensacola FL 32520

Vercell Vance, CEO
(Business Owner)
Alpha Data Corporation
1326 Lewis Turner Blvd.
Fort Walton Beach FL 32547

Esteena K. (Teena) Wells (Self Employed)
92 Hillcrest Way
DeFuniak Springs FL 32433

Wesley Wilkerson (Business Owner)
54 Seashore Circle
Santa Rosa Beach FL 32549

Northwest Florida Leaders Indicted

Northwest Florida kingpins Ray Sansom (R-Destin) and Okaloosa-Walton County college president Bob Richburg were indicted Friday on felony "public corruption" charges. Richburg also faces a second charge of perjury.

Sansom, R-Destin, was booked into the Leon County Jail on Friday afternoon and released on his own recognizance. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on the felony charge.
* * *
State Attorney Willie Meggs said Richburg unconvincingly told the grand jurors that building an aircraft hangar and emergency-management complex 15 miles from the Niceville campus was a "multiuse educational facility."
* * *
Meggs said Sansom's charge, a third-degree felony, reflects the then-House budget chief's creation of a false and fraudulent budget item that described the hangar project as a college building.

The full 10-page grand jury indictment can be read here. From the narrative "presentment" that follows the actual indictment, it's clear that the grand jury more or less considered Northwest Florida developer Jay Odom an unindicted co-conspirator. As Gannett Publishing Co.'s Tallahassee reporter puts it --

Odom, who contributed more than $1 million to the state GOP and Sansom's political causes, was not accused of any legal violation, but the grand jury said back-scratching among corporate honchos and politicians is a symptom of a deeply rooted malady.

At the root of this back-scratch was Odom's persistent efforts to find "other people's money" to finance a $6 million airplane hangar for one of his companies, Destin Jet, which he promotes as a state-of-the-art luxury private jet service. When Okaloosa County emergency managemnt personnel expressed no interest in misusing public money for Odom's company, the grand jury's narrative suggests, Odom used college president Richburg to be his cat's paw, in order to claw the $6 million out of Florida's state education appropriation:

During 2OO7 and 2008 airport officials learned about the appropriation to NWFSC [Northwest Florida State college] and the requirement by the Legislature that the college facility would be built at the Destin Airport. The college was to use a development order previously prepared by Destin Jet. The Destin Airport is located fifteen miles away from the NWFSC campus in Niceville. * * * During this meeting the NWFSC officials discussed how the building would be used. The college would have classroom space and the college could sub-lease the storage area to Destin Jet. The building essentially was the same design as Destin Jet's 2004 design, and is still an aircraft hanger. The second floor drawing now includes classrooms as opposed to office space and the first floor is now called a staging area.

The kicker is, "NWFSC does not have an aviation component in its curriculum" and "the vice-president of NWFSC responsible for construction of structures, Dr. Yancy, was not aware of the hanger project until he leamed that The Legislature had appropriated funds for it."

Your Grand Jurors have determined that the funding for this hanger can be attributed directly and solely to Speaker Designate Ray Sansom. No member of The Legislature ever saw this appropriation until it was inserted into the appropriation bill during conference between the Appropriation Chair Ray Sansom, and his senate counterpart senator, Lisa C arlton. The hanger project for a community college was the sole work of Ray Sansom, Jay Odom and Bob Richburg.

Jaded Northwest Floridians, by now, fully expect to be ripped off by developers like Jay Odom. Cronyism, corruption, and cupidity run so deep and wide among politicians at every level in the Florida panhandle that the only surprise is there's someone left still honest and courageous enough to try catching them.

But a corrupt college president -- and one who allegedly perjured himself, too? That still surprises.

It probably shouldn't. The reality of higher education is that some time ago it ceased to resemble the idyllic vision of berobed scholars, books in arm, thoughtfully wandering the tree-studded groves of academe.

The "Commercialization of Higher Education," as Derek Bok explains in a book by the same title, inevitably has compromised values "that are essential to the continued confidence and loyalty of faculty, students, alumni, and even the general public." When college presidents, in the scramble to acquire more and more money, climb into bed with developers and politicians, it's to be expected many will wake up indicted.

Criminal Since the Time of Cain

When the complete history of the Bush administration is written, it will reveal a criminal enterprise engaged in brutality every bit as revolting as --

• Japanese interrogators during W.W. II, whom we prosecuted for "waterboarding" and illegal torture";
• "Indonesia" and "Iran", which for years we have publicly condemned for engaging in "psychological torture" and "food and sleep deprivation" of prisoners;
  
• "Egypt" whose torture of prisoners we have condemned because it involved "stripping and blindfolding victims, suspending victims from a ceiling or doorframe with feet just touching the floor, beating victims... and dousing victims with cold water"; and
  
• "Algeria" for using the "chiffon method" of "placing a rag drenched in dirty water in someone's mouth."

The examples, above, come from "legal memoranda" written by high-ranking Bush administration lawyers which explicitly approved torturing prisoners.

Four of those memos were publicly released yesterday:

The four legal opinions, released in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the A.C.L.U., were written in 2002 and 2005 by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the highest authority in interpreting the law in the executive branch.

To be sure, President Obama revoked these very memos on his "second day in office" and "condemned what he called a "dark and painful chapter in our history." He's also promised "the interrogation techniques would never be used again."

Until the next time, that is. Because even as he released the evidence of war crimes, Obama also promised "that C.I.A. officers who were acting on the Justice Department’s legal advice would not be prosecuted."

It simply is not enough to leave each new presidential administration to decide which laws of humanity it will follow and which it will discard. In a democracy committed by Constitution and Treaty to being a republic governed by laws, crimes against humanity should not be treated like mere agency regulations or presidential signing statements, to be issued and revoked at will.

As our own nation argued successfully at the Nuremburg trials, "civilization cannot tolerate" acts which have been regarded as criminal "since the time of Cain." Those ultimately responsible for approving this must be prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished. Even if -- no, especially if -- some of them like Jay Bybee, now sit as federal judges, judging others.

At Nuremberg, we prosecuted the lawyers and judges who were complicit in the Nazi depravities. We owe it to ourselves to do no less when those depraved lawyers and judges are our own.

Dept. of Further Amplification
4-17 pm

Scott Lemieux properly points a finger at Senate Democrats who, in 2003, lay down on the job of 'advising and consenting' to give Torture Memo author-in-chief Jay Bybee a lifetime federal judgeship.

How can this be permitted to stand? Imagine the hundreds, even thousands, of lawyers who over the coming years will have to appear, in this or that case, before "the honorable" Jay Bybee, now unmasked, himself, as a key figure in the Bush cabal of war criminals. It would be like enduring proctology exams by Dr. Josef Mengele, year after year, until the criminal is, at last, hustled off to his eternal reward.

Morris Mystery Questions

The FBI's probable cause affidavit filed in the criminal case against now-deposed sheriff, Charlie Morris, describes a grave and enduring scheme of fraud, theft and money laundering by Okaloosa County law enforcement personnel. But it must be said the scheme also was breath-takingly idiotic.

No surprise, there. Criminals are stupid. That explains why they commit crimes.

Morris allegedly enlisted at least six other county sheriff's office employees in the scheme -- his administrative Teresa Adams, and five others. Some, if not all, appear to have been, themselves, deputy sheriffs.

The larger a conspiracy becomes, of course, the more difficult it is to keep secret. Even criminals know of Mark Twain's admonition that "two can keep a secret -- if one of them is dead."

It seems some of Morris' subordinates may have been a little late in coming to Jesus (or rather, in this case, the FBI). And that raises more questions than the prosecution has yet to answer. Here are four of them.

1. How many sheriff's office employees were involved?

For one, how many employees will the government ultimately claim Sheriff Morris used to launder money? How many of his subordinates received bogus "bonuses" and gave cash kick-backs?

We know of six subordinates, counting the administrative assistant who is now a co-defendant. But did every co-conspirator turn state's evidence or were there more?

Until that question is answered, every employee in the county sheriff's office will fall under the shadow of public suspicion.

2. How long has this been going on?

How long will the government claim Morris' money laundering conspiracy persisted? The "probable cause" affidavit suggests a chronology that reaches back at least to last Fall:

CW-2... provided me with a stack of pay stubs documenting his/her 2008 salary and bonus payments from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office. CW-2 then noted that approximately six of the stubs had a payment marked "PERFORM" under the "EARNINGS" column and the name of his/her bank under the "DEDUCTIONS" column. When taken together, these denoted the previously-described bonus payments paid into his/her personal checking account (including some legitimate bonuses which did not require a kickback). CW-2 then noted that... his/her salary with the OCSO with the addition of the bonus payments had increased by over $30,000 since the prior year.

The affidavit also asserts "Morris approached" another witness, identified as CW-3, "sometime in September 2008" to ask "if he/she would be willing to accept a $5,000 payment into his/her checking account, then subsequently withdraw the funds and given them back to Terry Adams."

Indeed, September seems to have been an especially needy month for Sheriff Morris. The FBI affidavit details yet another informant, CW-4, who also was approached in that same month:

Specifcally, CW-4 relayed that around the end of September 2008... the Sheriff walked into CW-4's office, shut the door, and informd CW-4 that he/she would actually be receiving a bonus of $11,000, and not $6,000 as previously stated. Morris then informed CW-4 that he/she would need to take $5,000 of that bonus and give it back to Terry Adams so that he (Sheriff Morris) could then give it to charity.

3. Why the urgency and escalating sums in January 2009?

We can safely assume the "charity" excuse Morris is alleged to have given his subordinates was nonsense. Legitimate charities aren't accustomed to raking in bags of cash.

Gratifying as it would be for the people of Okaloosa County, it also seems unlikely that Morris simply squirreled away the cash for a rainy day. He's not likely to show up in court and give it all back with a smile and a shrug.

Moreover, we think the circumstances described in the FBI affidavit strongly suggest that Morris was experiencing some sense of urgency in January 2009. The phony "bonus" money paid to CW-2 suddenly escalated to $15,000. Apparently, however, Morris wasn't used to dealing with dirty money in such denominations.

When he later awoke (or was told by someone else) that a cash transaction of $12,000 would require CW-2 to file a "currency transaction report," instead of the usual tactic some hope to use in hiding the cash transaction by stringing the kickbacks out into smaller payments over a longer period of time, Morris instructed his subordinate to proceed, anyway, but use a cashier's check instead. He wanted the money and he wanted it right then.

Why the urgency? That brings us, inevitably, to the granddaddy question of all.

4. Who ultimately received the loot?

Morris used the money to pay someone for something. That's what money is for. But who was it? And what was it for? As always, we need to follow the money.

Among the common, theoretically possible answers are the money wound up in the hands of a drug dealer, a bookie, a mistress, or a gambling casino. Sadly, perhaps, bookstores and art galleries almost never make the list.

But there is one other possibility we can imagine. It's one that would explain why Okaloosa County sheriff's Major Larry Donaldson cautioned supervisors yesterday, "This will get worse before it gets better."

It also broadly fits with the only two specific kickback months -- September 2008 and January 2009 -- which are mentioned in the FBI's "probable cause" affidavit. And, it would go a long way toward explaining the apparent urgency of the unusually large January kickback.

Can you think of a prominent, powerful Okaloosa County politician who was soliciting money last Fall as he ran for reelection? Someone, perhaps, who unexpectedly needed even more money in January when he resigned his job and learned that he needed a lawyer because he'd soon be appearing before a grand jury?

Someone, say, whom Morris is known to have strongly supported? Someone who was specifically on his mind in January?

The Northwest Daily News in Ft. Walton Beach hints at the answer in its latest editorial. The "mighty," the paper says, "sometimes... fall two at a time."

Update
2-28 pm

A Panama City television station is reporting that Okaloosa County's Chief Deputy Sheriff, Mike Coup, has been placed "on paid administrative leave as a precaution, due to the ongoing federal investigation into the allegations against Morris and Adams."

Law and Disorder in the Panhandle

Dhunk-dhunk. In Okaloosa County's criminal justice system, there are two separate yet equally important groups: the county sheriff, Charlie Morris, who investigates crimes and the county sheriff, Charlie Morris, who gets prosecuted for them. These are his stories:

Okaloosa County Sheriff Charlie Morris has been arrested on federal theft-bribery charges and suspended by Governor Charlie Crist.
* * *
Morris faces charges of theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, wire fraud, deprivation of rights to honest services, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity and conspiracy to commit the aforementioned offenses.

Update
A Dothan, Ala. TV station is reporting, "Sheriff Morris was arrested by federal agents in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is expected to make an initial appearance in United States District Court for the District of Nevada Friday."

Thereafter, he is expected to be returned to the Northern District of Florida.

According to the complaint filed in federal court, Morris, with the assistance of his Director of Administration and Finance, [Teresa] Adams, created fictitious bonuses to sheriff’s department employees.

The complaint alleges the employees were directed to return all or a portion of the bonuses in the form of cash and cashier’s checks under the pretense that these returned funds were to be used for charitable purposes.

More update
Morris currently is serving as President of the Florida Sheriff's Association.

Yet more update
According to older news reports, Sheriff Morris is a huge supporter of recently-resigned state senator Ray Sansom. Last month, the Destin Log reported, "Okaloosa County Sheriff Charlie Morris, a Republican, wrote that newspaper reports did 'not paint a true picture' of Sansom or his work to enhance public safety in Northwest Florida."

Sansom himself is presently under investigation for corruption charges by a Tallahassee grand jury.

Still more update
The U.S. Attorney's office press release confirming the arrests quoted, above, by the Dothan TV station, adds "A criminal complaint is merely a charging instrument. Each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in United States District Court."

OK. We're down with that. The sheriff is entitled to the presumption of innocence on all criminal charges. Absolutely.

But there's no reason to presume him smart. Directing employees to refund bogus "bonus" checks in cash? Would any deputy sheriffs, detectives, or investigators have thought something might be fishy with that? Ya' think?

Suffer the Little Children ...

Speaking of thieves, as we just were, here's a glimpse of how the next generation of Wall Street financiers is being raised in Florida by billionaire fraudster Robert Allen Stanford:

Stanford’s girlfriend and his children moved out of the castle in June 2004 and into a 12,000-square foot home that they rented for $25,000 a month, according to a March 2008 filing in the paternity case.

After the pair broke up, Stanford paid $850,000 a year in housing, food and private-school costs to ensure his children maintained their “privileged and luxurious lifestyle,” his girlfriend’s lawyers said in the March 2008 filing.

The amenities included a new Lincoln Navigator and driver available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to chauffeur the children, according to an October 2007 filing.

“All the children need to do is pick up the phone and say, please pick me up from school, please take me to gym, please take me to tennis, and there is a bonded, insured driver” to do so, according to the filing.

Stanford also picked up the $50,000-per-year tab for the Gulliver Academy, a private school, and gave $6,000 worth of Christmas gifts to teachers, lawyers said in the filing.

He also provided as much as $75,000 for Christmas gifts and vacations for the children, and set aside $1 million for each in a trust account, the filings show.
* * *
“The children have always enjoyed first-class vacations and traditionally fly on Global Express, one of the Respondent’s private jets,” the girlfriend’s lawyers said in one of the March 2008 filings.

What damage to the lives of your children and grandchildren do you suppose will be done some day by the grotesquely spoiled offspring of the Allen Stanfords, Bernie Madoffs, and Art Nadels of our time?

edited 2-21
1:00 pm

Brighter Side of Economic Doom

Tony Pugh of McClatchey News Service filed this report early yesterday about the quickly escalating crime rates that always accompany hard times. Ironically, as bad times drive crime rates up, local governments are pressured to cut back on police protection, street lighting, etc.

The fewer cops on the beat and the darker your neighborhood, the more you are likely to be burgled. It's a vicious cycle.

Not to be missed, however, is the brighter side of economic doom. The more people lose their jobs, the more they tend to hole up at home. This leads California sociology professor Lawrence E. Cohen to observe:

"The more that people stay in their homes, the less likely they are to experience break-ins, since most thieves prefer to attack unoccupied dwellings."

Most thieves "prefer" unoccupied homes? That must be what passes for good news, these days.

Panhandle Christmas Crimes

File this in "There will always be a Florida Panhandle."

The Great Bra Caper:

The manager of Victoria’s Secret in Santa Rosa Mall discovered the disappearance of 126 bras after the manager of another store suggested she check her stock.

A similar theft had just been reported at Victoria’s Secret at University Mall in Pensacola.

The bras reportedly disappeared sometime after 8 p.m. on Nov. 18, according to an Okaloosa County Sheriff ’s Office report. Their value is $5,460.

Missing are 50 Very Sexy Push Up Bras, 12 Very Sexy Wireless Bras and 64 Very Sexy Flip Bras in various sizes, according to the report.
* * *

On Aug. 22, nearly $5,000 worth of panties was stolen from an open table.

Ladies, if you happen to find some "very sexy" bras under the tree this year, be sure to call 9-11.