Gabrielle Russon
Former Orange County Elections Supervisor Glen Gilzean spent at least $41,500 on attorneys for his lawsuit that ultimately fizzled out in his final month of office as he feuded with county officials over his budget.
Florida Politics obtained the invoices for Gilzean’s attorneys through a public records request. The Office, which was taken over by Karen Castor Dentel last week, is waiting for more invoices and going through contracts, so the final cost could be even higher.
The invoices were from West Palm Beach-based law firm Gunster and Winter Park-based firm Fishback Dominick. Fishback Dominick charged $325 an hour for partners and $125 an hour for legal assistants, according to the Dec. 16 contract.
On Dec. 5, Gilzean filed a lawsuit against Orange County and Comptroller Phil Diamond to get his regular budget payments reinstated after the County Commission canceled them over concerns Gilzean was inappropriately spending taxpayer money. Gilzean’s final day in office was Jan. 6 since he did not run for a full term after being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Gilzean had angered county leaders after he gave $2.1 million for Valencia College scholarships, $1.9 million to a career training center and $1.37 million to the Central Florida Foundation for administrative and consulting services. (The career center returned the money during the public backlash.)
Officials decried the spending, calling it reckless to give millions to outside organizations since Gilzean’s duties were to run local elections.
By the end of Gilzean’s term, he had spent more than half of his annual budget, leaving Castor Dentel to inherit a tight budget.
Gilzean countered and said he had the right to decide how to spend his budget as an independent constitutional officer. He also argued he was thinking outside the box to improve voter engagement and educate the temp workers who helped his office during the election.
The Orange County Commission voted Dec. 3 to freeze the next budget payment to Gilzean’s Office to prevent him from getting access to more funds. Diamond said Gilzean’s bank account was in the red.
Gilzean sued over the canceled budget payment.
Gilzean’s lawsuit said, “Simply put, Orange County and the Comptroller do not have discretion to withhold funds once the budget has been approved and the statutory conditions have been met.”
Gilzean’s attorney asked a Judge to speed up the court process, calling the situation an emergency.
“So bottom line is that we’re in a predicament where we lack funding to not only meet payroll and employee expenses, but also vendor expenses,” Daniel Langley, Gilzean’s attorney, said at the Dec. 18 hearing.
Orange County argued Gilzean’s spending situation was a “self-imposed dilemma” since he had been giving millions of dollars to his “pet organizations.”
Meanwhile, the county paid Gilzean’s Office payroll directly to the payroll company since Gilzean didn’t have enough funds.
Orange Circuit Court Judge Luis Calderon had found Gilzean made a “facially sufficient claim” in his lawsuit but ultimately sided with Orange County. The Judge refused to speed up the timeline for the county to respond in court, and Gilzean’s lawsuit ran into the Christmas holidays and then his final day of office, sputtering out and leaving Castor Dentel to clean up the office and the public relations mess. She has vowed to try and get whatever is left of the taxpayer funds back from Valencia and the foundation.
