ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean did not act within his authority when he elected to shift money to fund scholarships and grants without seeking commissioners’ permission, county attorneys have determined.
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In an email to Mayor Jerry Demings obtained by WFTV, attorneys said they had been trying to find a Florida law that said otherwise but had so far been unsuccessful.
“The County Attorney’s Office is in the process of drafting a [lawsuit] with multiple counts,” Jeffrey Newton wrote.
The controversy began after the county learned Gilzean had signed an agreement with Valencia College to use taxpayer dollars to create a $2.1 million scholarship fund for Jones and Evans high school students in his name.
The agreement was signed in September, days before the fiscal year ended and Gilzean was required to return any unspent funds. As pressure grew, Gilzean took his name off the scholarship.
A few days into the controversy, leaders found out Gilzean signed a separate agreement with CareerSource for $1.9 million on the final day of the fiscal year to provide job retraining to his temporary elections staff.
Read: Rage growing in Orange County after election office’s $5 million spending revelations
As part of their investigation, county attorneys and budget leaders, collaborating with the comptroller’s office, took a look at the office’s spending and compared it to the original request made by then-Supervisor Bill Cowles in July 2023.
They discovered Gilzean’s office used just 6% of the allocated budget for postage for items like mail-in ballots, which amounted to less than $92,000 from a $1.5 million request. His office also spent less than $5 million of its $7.6 million for temporary elections staff.
The money appears to have been shifted toward a different line item – “Contract services not otherwise specified” – which sources familiar with the office’s operation said typically acts as the emergency fund for unexpected events like a pandemic.
The budget document showed Gilzean’s office overspent that line item by 370%.
Read: Orange County schools cancel pep rallies amid scholarship controversy
Gilzean has said he was within his authority as a constitutional officer to spend his budget as he saw fit and the county did not have any standing. Since the lawsuit threats began, his office has declined to comment further.
Attorneys specializing in government affairs said a lawsuit would potentially stop Valencia College and CareerSource from spending the money until a judge ruled in the election office’s favor. A ruling in favor of the county would potentially lead to the money being returned to the county.
On Friday, Valencia College offered to send the $2.1 million back – if commissioners asked.
In phone conversations, multiple commissioners said they’d want to make the request, but for varying reasons. One cited the precedent that would be set by allowing the college to keep the scholarship funding. Another said they wanted the scholarships opened to all county students.
Commissioners are scheduled to discuss the next steps they want to take at the end of their Tuesday afternoon meeting. The meetings do not have consistent ending times and the discussion could start and continue well into the night.
Read: Only on 9: Orange County SOE creates scholarship with tax dollars, naming it after himself
Gilzean’s office sent WFTV the following statement:
“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.
Unfortunately, that’s not enough for Mayor Jerry Demings and some of his colleagues.
Orange County residents should be concerned, disappointed, and offended that the mayor wants to waste hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on attorneys and legal fees to deny low-income students the opportunity to improve their lives.
Our office acted well within the law to establish these scholarships and will vigorously defend our mission to expand voter participation and improve the lives of Orange County citizens.”
— Glen Gilzean, Orange County Supervisor of Elections
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