TALLAHASSEE — The state GOP has distanced itself from a Panhandle developer involved in the Ray Sansom controversy, while the developer himself has stepped down from a state insurance board.
Jay Odom, a longtime friend and political contributor to Sansom, the ousted House speaker, had provided aircraft services to the Republican Party of Florida, but the party has decided to no longer use his companies.
"I'm reading every day there are issues with Jay Odom. I just didn't think the party should be involved in anything like that," Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer said Tuesday.
He added the move was part of broader cost savings but said appearances were a factor.
Meanwhile, Odom, 52, has given up his seat on the board of directors of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run insurer. In a resignation letter dated Feb. 19, he cited "growing time constraints" of his family. He was first appointed in 2002.
The decision was not based on Sansom's recent troubles, a spokesman for Odom's Crystal Beach Development said Tuesday.
Sansom, R-Destin, is facing a grand jury inquiry over his relationship with Northwest Florida State College, which hired him to an unadvertised $110,000 job in November.
The St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau reported that Sansom had funneled to the school tens of millions in extra or accelerated construction money, including $6 million for an airport building that mirrored one that Odom had sought taxpayer funding for.
Sansom has resigned from the college job and has been ousted as speaker of the House. He is dealing with the grand jury inquiry and two ethics investigations.
The grand jury met again Tuesday and got a briefing on possible Sunshine Law violations concerning a meeting of the college trustees, president Bob Richburg and Sansom in March at a private club in Tallahassee. The next scheduled grand jury meeting is March 26.
"We don't know where it will go, but it's going to keep going," State Attorney Willie Meggs said.
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