After a story on the criminal past of Travis Sanders, Hernando stops to investigate. But if it doesn't engage Sanders' company at the park, it may have to pay back a federal grant.
By WILL VAN SANT
Published March 24, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - County leaders want to know more about Travis L. Sanders before they do business with him.
Sanders, 55, heads TVSS Manufacturing Inc., a company seeking to build surge suppressors at a vacant industrial park on Interstate 75. The arrival of the company, Sanders has said, will not only create jobs and tax revenue but also allow the county to fulfill the terms of a federal grant it received in 2000.
But it was Sanders' criminal history, not his company's promised benefits, that grabbed the attention of officials Tuesday.
Responding to a Times story, the County Commission yanked discussion of an agreement to bring TVSS to Hernando from its meeting agenda, and Economic Development director Mike McHugh agreed to halt the project while he attempts to verify the newspaper's findings.
"I feel it is absolutely appropriate to pull this item until some of that information can be validated," McHugh told the board.
Sanders has an arrest record that stretches across Tennessee, Kentucky and Florida and dates back to the 1970s. He has been arrested for writing bad checks, visiting a prostitute and an assault.
Although the final dispositions of all his arrests are not known, records show that in 1986 Sanders served three months of a one year sentence in Tennessee for trafficking in stolen goods, followed by two years probation.
In 1989, Sanders was arrested for sexual battery on a minor and possession of child pornography. According to news reports, the arrest came after Okaloosa County authorities found that Sanders had videotaped several of his sexual encounters, including one with a 14-year-old girl.
He pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to six months in jail, two years of community control - a form of house arrest - and eight years' probation, according to reports.
Sanders did not return a call for comment Tuesday, but on Monday he refused to discuss his past troubles with the law, saying his personal history had nothing to do with TVSS and his ability to make it a successful business.
Both McHugh and county Social Services director Jean Rags, who serves as Hernando's grants administrator, had recommended TVSS to the board, but said they might not have done so had they known of Sanders' past sooner.
During Tuesday's discussion, County Commissioner Diane Rowden expressed some concern that the county did not require criminal background checks on those it does business with. She directed county attorneys to see whether other Florida counties have such procedures.
The idea was greeted with some wariness by County attorney Garth Coller, who said creating such a requirement could prove complex and difficult to fairly enforce. Also, Coller said, it could push businesses away from the county and create a new avenue of legal liability for the board.
"We need to decide not to over-react," he told commissioners, whom he advised not to publicly discuss Sanders and the TVSS deal out of concern that such comments could create legal jeopardy.
While McHugh checks into Sanders' background to determine whether he should bring the TVSS project before commissioners again, the county is under pressure to find a company willing to locate to the I-75 industrial park.
The site is owned by developer Gary Schraut, Clifford Manuel of Coastal Engineering and Brooksville attorney Tom Hogan Jr., a friend and business partner of Sanders who helped set up TVSS in February.
In 2000, the county received a $750,000 federal grant that failed to create jobs for low-income residents as intended, but thanks to the road and utility improvements it paid for, left Schraut, Manuel and Hogan with some valuable land to market.
When a pool products company pulled out of the project in 2002, however, the promise of those jobs was lost and the county left with having to find a company that could fulfill the grant requirements.
As long as Hernando is acting in good faith to find a replacement, it is unlikely state officials who oversee the federal grant will require the county to repay the $750,000, Rags said.
If it is found the county is throwing up obstacles to finding another company - such as backing out of the TVSS deal because of its owner's criminal record - Rags said she is worried the county may be forced to pay up.
Another possibility is that Sanders, who operates two surge suppressor-related businesses in Destin, will back out of the deal. On Monday, he told a Times reporter he would do just that and build elsewhere if coming to Hernando proved too troublesome.
Attorney Hogan said his friend Sanders was not used to the kind of "hostility" he has faced in Hernando and may indeed abandon the deal.
"He is thinking it over," Hogan said.
- Will Van Sant can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to vansant@sptimes.com
