Political fireworks go off as Orange County debates Glen Gilzean spending

Orange County Supervisor of Election's Office

Orange County Commissioners are sparring about whether officials should take legal action after complaints that Elections Supervisor Glen Gilzean went on an unapproved spending spree.

Commissioner Mike Scott pushed to be aggressive as officials discussed the possibility of getting a court injunction or taking legal action.

“How do we stop the bleeding?” Scott said during the Orange County Commission meeting. “This is only what we know. … There may be things that are happening that are yet to be discovered.”

But Commissioners Emily Bonilla and Christine Moore urged Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings to sit down and talk with Gilzean to end the conflict before it led to a lawsuit.

“The only thing that I wish had happened, Mayor, is that you and Mr. Gilzean could have gotten together and tried to work this out,” Moore said. “It’s putting us in a bad situation.”

The public officials’ reactions varied radically Tuesday night as Demings continued to voice his outrage about Gilzean’s spending.

Just before the end of the fiscal year, Gilzean signed off on $2.1 million for a student scholarship, originally named after himself, and another $1.9 million in career training. That money came from surpluses that should have been returned to the Orange County general fund as required by state law, county officials said.

County leaders questioned Tuesday whether there are more dollars that Gilzean spent not directly related to running elections, saying other local groups had also gotten thousands of dollars in grants.

“There has never been a constitutional officer in Orange County that has reallocated funding in the manner that Mr. Gilzean has done,” Demings said Tuesday, calling Gilzean “manipulative.”

“This is bad governance. This was an inexperienced individual who was appointed by the Governor who had no experience to manage the office.”

Demings has threatened to sue, although he declined to discuss his legal strategy publicly Tuesday over what he says is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars that hadn’t gone through proper county oversight.

“The litigators in our section are chomping at the bit to go forward with this one,” said Orange County Attorney Jeff Newton during the meeting.

Newton then added that any potential lawsuit would be handled by county staff attorneys, not outside counsel, after Gilzean attacked Demings Monday over claims his lawsuit would waste taxpayer money.

The war of words was the backdrop Tuesday when Demings and County Commissioners spoke about Gilzean for the first time at a public meeting. The board did not take a formal vote, but debated the issue for more than an hour into the night as the politically loaded fireworks finale of an hourslong meeting.

Demings told Commissioners that Gilzean insisted on naming the taxpayer-funded scholarships after himself. After the backlash, Gilzean removed his name.

Once Demings spoke out publicly against the scholarships, CareerSource later came forward and admitted it had also received public funds from Gilzean, Demings said.

Demings said Gilzean gave Valencia and CareerSource the money after the Elections Supervisor had previously asked Orange County for additional funding for voter engagement, community outreach and more.

“We did not provide him with the millions that he was requesting because we really did not believe that he could execute that in a timely manner related to the very pressing … Presidential Election that was before us,” Demings said. “We said no.”

Instead, Demings said he was later blindsided by Gilzean’s scholarship and career training programs coming from an apparent surplus.

“The cost-savings our office achieved last year helped pave the way for two innovative programs central to the mission of this office to increase voter outreach while putting a college education within the reach of low-income students across Orange County Schools. In addition, our office also returned more than $700,000 in unused funds to the county,” Gilzean said in a written statement Monday. “Unfortunately, that’s not enough for Mayor Jerry Demings and some of his colleagues.”

Gilzean has argued his programs are innovative ways to tackle problems like a lack of voter engagement in Orlando. He also said the job training will help temp workers who helped him run the elections but are now out of work.

Moore defended Gilzean Tuesday, saying his intentions weren’t bad.

“I don’t think we should keep denigrating him, that his purposes and his motives were wasteful spending,” Moore told Demings. “It just was outside the scope of the job of the Supervisor of Elections. He didn’t follow proper procedures.”

In recent days, Valencia College and CareerSource both issued statements promising to give the money back — if Orange County asked for it.

“I feel like certain organizations are reluctant to return it, but they’re doing it because of the public scrutiny,” Scott said over their gestures.

The County Attorney said he will be satisfied however Orange County gets the money back. He added that the $4 million agreements signed were between the Supervisor of Elections Office and Valencia or CareerSource, so Orange County wasn’t in a position to act over them or cancel them.

Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped Gilzean, who had been in charge of the Disney World’s Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, to run the county’s elections after longtime Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles resigned abruptly. That put Gilzean, a DeSantis appointee, in one of the state’s bluest districts and put Gilzean in charge of the budget created by his predecessor.

Gilzean decided not to run for a full term, so he will be replaced by incoming Elections Supervisor-elect Karen Castor Dentel, who is sworn in Jan. 7 and will meet with county Comptroller Phil Diamond to discuss auditing the office.

Commissioner Mayra Uribe pointed out that in about seven weeks, Gilzean is gone and a new Elections Supervisor will be in charge. Uribe wondered whether Castor Dentel can help get the money back or would she inherit a pending lawsuit?

Despite the intensity of Tuesday night’s meetings, those questions remain unanswered.