What could go wrong?

Sanborn Studios is a leader among the 28 Sarasota County companies that have received a portion of $5 million in public funds in exchange for job creation.
That starts with the money — at $650,000 it's the richest incentive for a single company in the history of the five-year program. That also goes for lawsuits and counterclaims, with three since July 28. The situation, to many Sarasota-Manatee business executives, is a symbol of what can go wrong when government entities dole out money to businesses for projected growth.
The crux of the county's legal claim is simple. Sanborn Studios, a Lakewood Ranch-based movie and TV production studio founded by area entrepreneur Ken Sanborn, was given the $650,000 in September 2010. The contract called for the firm to add 117 jobs, at an average annual wage of $72,029, by September 2013. The firm failed to create the jobs and therefore breached its contract, the county alleges.
The remedy: Sanborn Studios, per the contract, must reimburse the county $2,992 for every job it failed to deliver, the county says in the suit filed in Sarasota Circuit Court. That would cover $350,000. The county also asks the judge to consider damages in the case that would make Sarasota whole on its $650,000 investment.
Sanborn Studios and Sanborn himself deny the allegations. The firm filed a countersuit Aug. 25. The suit makes several claims against the county, including breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing; slander of title; disparagement of property; and trade libel. The suit also contends the county violated its ethics codes, disregarded its own audit reports; and, most damningly, deliberately undermined Sanborn Studio's business.

Ken Sanborn, according to his spokesman, Scott Sobel, was out of the country and not available for comment. Sanborn retained Sobel, president and founder of suburban Washington, D.C.-based crisis communications firm Media & Communications Strategies, earlier this year.

“The studio's reputation has been severely damaged by the county's malicious actions and the studio expects to recover millions of dollars, in an amount yet to be fully determined, in damages, including
punitive damages,” Sobel writes in an Aug. 25 statement. “A focal point for the counter suit against the county is the indisputable fact that county representatives acted in bad faith and undermined Sanborn Studios' reputation in the county and in the film industry, and specifically in front of an existing client who wanted to hire the studio to produce a film.”