ORLANDO, Fla. – The Valencia College Foundation returned $2.1 million to the Orange County supervisor of elections office Wednesday, a huge development in a budget battle that pitted Orange County government against the former supervisor of elections.
New supervisor Karen Castor Dentel announced the college gave back the money that was meant to be used for a scholarship. However, the college and her office will maintain a partnership to get students civically engaged, and an early voting location on campus.
The county has been trying to recoup millions of dollars that the previous elections supervisor, Glen Gilzean, gave to nonprofits, including for a scholarship for Valencia College Foundation that was originally meant to bear his name, programs with CareerSource Central Florida, and a grant program that the Central Florida Foundation was administering.
However, a report by the county comptroller’s office said Gilzean had unpaid bills from the November election, and had already drawn around half the money from the current budget for the office, which began in October.
It all led to a fight between the county commission and Gilzean, who sued when the county froze monthly budget allocations as it investigated. Gilzean said that without the money he wouldn’t be able to make December’s payroll.
Castor Dentel, who took office in January after winning the November election, has said she planned to get the money back, but she also was trying to figure out the financial situation she was left with.
CareerSource of Central Florida had returned $1.9 million to the county last year. They also returned an additional $275,000 in January that paid for another program.
The Central Florida Foundation also returned more than $864,500 last month. The foundation will continue to administer grant money through the OC Vote program to 12 groups.
“These funds will allow us to settle critical obligations and ensure we continue the important work of administering elections,” Castor Dentel said.
Castor Dentel said that with the recovered money she has been able to pay hundreds of off-duty sheriff’s deputies who handled security issues during election season, along with temporary election staff who were all waiting to be paid.
She said she also had outstanding debts to vendors for cybersecurity and ballot printing.
“I am eager to get the rest of our invoices paid and off of my desk,” Castor Dentel said.
Castor Dentel says her office discovered there were 100 unaccounted-for invoices, totaling about $700,000.
As for whether the office will have enough money to make it through the year, Castor Dentel says she has frequent conversations with County Comptroller Phil Diamond’s office and county staff on where they stand financially.
“We let them know what we are able to pay, what we’re not, and where we are, and so we’re working in concert with them,” she said. “So they know where we are, if we have to make a budget adjustment or a budget amendment, they’re going to work with us on that.”
Castor Dentel says she has also restored controls on bills and purchase orders, and is working with the chief financial officer to get the bills paid and also prevent this situation from happening again.
“We have delayed maintenance, we have delayed purchases, we are stretching the dollar, so I’m eager to be able to pay our bills in full,” she said.