Orange County elections chief spent more money than his office had, comptroller’s report says

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orange County supervisor of elections spent more money in the first three months of the budget than the state of Florida allows, according to a new report from Comptroller Phil Diamond’s office, and if the supervisor doesn’t get the money that the county is refusing to pay right now, the office could end up with a bank account overdraft — to the tune of more than half a million dollars.

The report, released Monday, breaks little new ground in terms of allegations of misspending by Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean.

However, the report does break down the amount of money spent by the supervisor of elections from Oct. 1 to Dec. 12, and where he spent it.

The report makes four points against Gilzean:

1. He violated state law because an outgoing constitutional officer is not allowed to spend more than one-twelfth of the funds for a budget item each month, without approval from county commissioners.
2. He gave $1.137 million to the Central Florida Foundation to help administer a grant program, spending which was not in the approved county budget, and not listed according to state law.
3. The money he spent was in excess of the available balance in the checking account.
4. He didn’t properly account for expenses, thus misstating his financial position.

The report is based on bank records his office obtained after a confidential informant last month accused Gilzean of improper spending.

Because of the allegations, the county commission approved Diamond’s request to freeze a December payment to the supervisor of elections office until Diamond could figure out what was happening.

Gilzean has sued the comptroller to get that freeze lifted, saying that without the money he would be unable to pay the office staff.

Last week, a judge agreed the freeze may have violated the law and gave the county 20 days to show why it shouldn’t immediately release the money.

A hearing is also set for Wednesday.

Gilzean released a statement in response to the report Monday:

“The judge’s ruling is clear: the Comptroller broke the law by withholding payroll funds from the Orange County Supervisor of Elections. The court found that the Supervisor had a clear legal right to the funds, and the Comptroller had an indisputable duty to disburse them. The only adequate remedy for this illegal action is for the Comptroller to release the funding to pay SOE employees. It’s a matter of upholding the law. Therefore, the investigation into allegations of improper spending and accounting practices is irrelevant. Comptroller Diamond’s opinion of this office’s finances isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. His inability to understand basic county governance practices is the reason County Commissioners took a misguided vote to cut off our ability to pay staff.”

Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean

Indeed, the nearly $1 million the office is owed may be even more crucial.

The report says that without the December payment, once all the checks Gilzean has written in the last two months clear, the office may have overdrafted its bank account by $587,173.13.

All of the money came from the $19.15 million budget approved for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The comptroller says the county elections office was already given $9.6 million of that budget, more than the state requires.

[READ the report from the comptroller’s office]

The report is the latest chapter in the budget battle between Orange County leaders and Supervisor of Elections Gilzean.

It started when the county learned Gilzean had taken $4 million, which he said came from surplus funds from the fiscal year 2023-2024 budget, and used them to establish a scholarship at Valencia College and to fund programs at CareerSource Central Florida. The programs were all meant to incorporate civic engagement.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said the surplus funds should have gone toward shoring up the November election or returned to the county.

Gilzean, however, said once the budget was set, he could spend the money as he saw fit as long as he followed Florida law.

Demings and the county commission instructed the county attorneys to look into whether they could sue to get the money back last month. Nothing has come from that.

However, the county commission is supposed to get an update on the comptroller’s report and spending in the supervisor’s office on Tuesday during the regular meeting.

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Gilzean, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year, may have had so much money left over in the last budget because he did not properly account for expenses, the report says, which is allowed under Florida law.

From the report:

“This issue relates to services or goods received but not paid prior to year-end and not recorded as accrued expenses. Under the modified accrual basis of accounting, governmental entities are required to recognize liabilities when goods or services have been received, regardless of when they pay the bills. The failure to accrue these expenses results in a misstatement of both the liabilities and expenditures in the financial statements, leading to an overstatement of the Supervisor of Elections’ funds available at fiscal year-end and an inaccurate reflection of financial activity.”

Demings issued a statement regarding the report on Monday:

“My goal in sounding the alarm about the spending by the Supervisor of Elections was to hold him accountable to the taxpayers and the Orange County Board of County Commissioners for spending the people’s money. Ultimately, our citizens deserve more transparency and assurance that the SOE follows the law. This is not about partisan politics but about right versus wrong and lawful versus unlawful.

“With the Comptroller’s report, my concerns have been confirmed. Things were happening in the Supervisor of Elections office that are inappropriate. Comptroller Diamond’s investigation makes it clear that Mr. Gilzean did not follow the law, nor did he follow the best practices. As a result, he has put the Board of County Commissioners in a difficult position, which will require us to take additional action. We will discuss tomorrow what those actions should be and determine the next steps.

“Perhaps the Governor should consider removing Mr. Gilzean from office now and appointing the incoming elected Supervisor of Elections, Karen Castor Dental.

“As for the organizations that received funds from the Supervisor of Elections due to inappropriate spending, I believe that money should be returned to Orange County.”

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings

[READ the 2024-2025 Supervisor of Elections budget]

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