Orange County chasing $9.3 million in election funds
Topline: Orange County, Florida has recovered $3.2 million – and counting – that officials say former Elections Supervisor Glen Gilzean spent improperly, but there’s still plenty missing from at least $9.3 million that went out the door, according to reports from several local news agencies.
Key facts: Gilzean, appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March 2024, first came under fire in December. The county board unanimously voted to freeze his spending after Comptroller Phil Diamond uncovered $5 million in payments Diamond said either did not have approval or were unrelated to election administration.
The payments included $2.1 million to Valencia College to fund scholarships. Diamond told the Tampa Bay Times the money should have been returned to the county instead.
Not only did Gilzean ignore the spending freeze; he began spending money so quickly it may have been illegal. He wrote over 200 checks totaling $4.3 million within a single week after the freeze was issued, telling the Tampa Bay Times they were for “legitimate election expenses.”
In total, Gilzean spent half of his office’s annual budget in just three months. Diamond said it left the elections office with so little money it had to dig into other county funds just to give employees their paychecks. He also claimed it violated a state law that bars officials who are not seeking re-election from spending more than one-twelfth of their office’s budget in a month without county approval.
Gilzean sued the county to try and get the spending freeze lifted and spent $41,500 on attorneys’ fees, Florida Politics reported.
The lawsuit was not fully resolved when Gilzean’s term ended in January. The new elections supervisor, Karen Castor Dentel, has made it a priority to recoup Gilzean’s spending.
Castor Dentel got Valencia College to return its scholarship funding to the county. Central Florida Foundation returned $864,500 of the $1.1 million it received for voter engagement initiatives.
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Supporting quote: Gilzean disagreed that he overstepped his spending authority, telling Spectrum News 13, “They illegally withheld funds from an independent constitutional office for some political motivated witch-hunt, and I don’t understand why, but we need to make sure that the public is aware that this this cannot happen. When you appropriate the funds, you have to let this independent office actually do the work of the people for the mission of the office. And that’s exactly what we did.”
Summary: The court of public opinion will decide whether Gilzean overstepped his authority while spending county funds. It’s a reminder that the easiest way to protect taxpayer money is to simply spend less of it.
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