ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – In a setback for Orange County’s elections supervisor, a judge rejected his request to move up the timeline in his push to get the county government to free up nearly $1 million in budget money.
Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean filed the lawsuit and requested the hearing after the county commission voted to freeze the monthly budget allocation of nearly $1 million to his office for December.
Gilzean requested that the judge force the county to respond to his writ of mandamus regarding the budget money by Thursday, Dec. 19, instead of the customary 20-day response period.
Gilzean’s attorneys said they were concerned because county attorneys would not be available to respond over the winter holiday. The response, which would be the county’s reason why it should not have to release the money, is due by Jan. 1.
If the judge had granted the Dec. 19 deadline, Gilzean’s attorneys said it could have allowed for a final order by Dec. 23.
However, the judge said he saw no cause to move up the timeline, based on arguments at a hearing held Wednesday in Orlando.
This means this budget issue will not be resolved before the end of December, and may not be completed before Gilzean is out of office on Jan. 6, 2025.
Concerned about misspending allegations in Gilzean’s office, Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond earlier this month convinced county commissioners to freeze the December budget allocation. Gilzean sued Diamond to get the freeze lifted.
Gilzean said that without the December budget allocation, he won’t be able to pay staff through the month, and his bank accounts will show a negative balance.
On Tuesday the county commission voted to release enough money to pay county staff, but not the full amount.
After a confidential informant reached out to Diamond’s office, his staff investigated spending in the election supervisor’s office since Oct. 1.
In a report Diamond presented to county commissioners Tuesday, the office found that Gilzean had violated state law by spending more per month than allowed as an outgoing constitutional officer, including $1.1 million for a grant program that was not approved in the budget, and had spent more money than was available in the office checking account.
The report says that without the December payment, once all the checks Gilzean had written in the last two months clear, the office may have overdrafted its bank account by $587,173.13.
The report also accused Gilzean’s office of not properly accounting for expenses, which may be why Gilzean believed he had a $4 million surplus in the previous budget.
Gilzean used that surplus to establish a scholarship at Valencia College and to fund programs at CareerSource Central Florida, ticking off the budget battle with county leaders who said that surplus should have been returned to the county.
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