Hernando County commissioners were blindsided last week when they learned that the owner of a business, which had been touted as the savior of a $750,000 federal grant to improve a vacant industrial park, has a criminal past.
Commissioners were prepared to accept a recommendation from Office of Business Development director Mike McHugh and grant coordinator Jean Rags to approve TVSS Manufacturing Inc. as the first occupant in a 40-acre industrial park at State Road 50 and Interstate 75.
The firm, which would make and sell surge suppressors, had agreed to create 22 jobs and set aside 12 of those positions for unskilled, low-income workers. That was a stipulation the county agreed to when it accepted the grant money to build a road and utility system at the site.
But after Times staff writers Will Van Sant and Kelly Virella reported that the owner of TVSS, Travis L. Sanders, 55, has a criminal background that includes trafficking in stolen goods and sexual battery of a 14-year-old girl, the commission wisely delayed approving the deal. McHugh is now conducting his own investigation into Sanders' arrest record.
Sanders' interest in expanding his business, which is based in Destin, to Hernando County can be traced to his friendship and business dealings with Tom Hogan Jr., a well-known attorney in Brooksville and part-owner of the industrial park. Since the grant money was used to improve the property's infrastructure, its market value has increased 14 times beyond the partnership's original investment, to $3.65-million. Hogan also serves on the board of directors of Cortez Community Bank, from which Sanders was going to borrow most of the $1-million he is obligated to invest in the operation.
Neither Sanders nor Hogan were required to acknowledge Sanders' unsavory personal history in the application process, or that they had other business dealings. But they should have.
By not doing so, they risk creating the appearance they were hiding the information from the commission, as well as residents who might seek employment there.
If Hogan chooses to do business with a convicted criminal, and to persuade his friends at the bank to loan Sanders money, that is his prerogative.
But the County Commission must be more discerning with whom it associates. Learning about Sanders in the newspaper was an embarrassing surprise that makes it look as if the county is, at best, uninformed. At worst, it gives rise to the notion that the county is so desperate to satisfy the terms of the grant that it will welcome anyone who broadens the industrial tax base. Neither possibility sets well with the public.
The commission now is questioning whether its staff should routinely conduct background checks on future grant applicants. That is a possible solution, but one the county attorney has suggested is rife with legal liabilities.
Whatever the commissioners decide, it is clear they need to devise some sort of screening system and apply it consistently.
The commissioners and their staff have learned a lesson the hard way. How they apply what they have learned is the next challenge.
