New elections chief in Florida's Orange County seeks return of millions previous leader gave to nonprofits

Ryan Gillespie, Orlando Sentinel on Jan 7, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

ORLANDO, Fla. — Moving swiftly to distance herself from her embattled predecessor, newly minted Supervisor of Elections Karen Castor Dentel said Tuesday that her administration has begun efforts to claw back taxpayer funds from Valencia College and the Central Florida Foundation.

Payments to those groups were made by the previous elections chief, Glen Gilzean, and spawned a monthslong feud between the elections office and county leaders who deemed the payments improper, if not illegal.

Castor Dentel said recovering the money is crucial to solving a budget shortfall in the office. More than half of the agency’s budget was spent in the first three months of the fiscal year, and in a court filing, Gilzean had indicated the office was about $800,000 in the red.

“While these organizations are pillars of our community that have been drawn into the situation through no fault of their own, it’s vital that funds are returned to ensure the integrity of our elections,” Castor Dentel said in a news conference.

She formally took office Tuesday after winning election in November. The office was first vacant last year when longtime supervisor Bill Cowles retired. Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped Gilzean to lead the office in the interim. Gilzean previously had been the governor’s pick to lead the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board.

Gilzean ultimately didn’t seek election.

In his final months in office, Gilzean’s efforts to distribute election office funds to local nonprofits drew criticism from county leaders including Mayor Jerry Demings and Comptroller Phil Diamond. In total, Gilzean made about $5 million in payments an amount equivalent to about one-quarter of his office’s annual budget — with money going to Valencia College for scholarships, CareerSource Central Florida for retraining for elections workers and to the Central Florida Foundation to administer OCVotes, a program that grants money to other local nonprofits for voter outreach efforts.

Amid the kerfuffle, CareerSource returned the $1.9 million it had received, while Valencia College said it would return its $2.1 million share of the money if it was asked to – though before Tuesday county leaders hadn’t done so.

It’s unclear how much of the roughly $1.1 million paid to the Foundation remains; at least some of that money has already been distributed. A foundation spokesperson didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Castor Dentel said she hadn’t made any decisions about the overall OCVotes program, and intends to evaluate it.

During the feud with Gilzean, the board of County Commissioners at Diamond’s urging froze budget payments to the elections supervisor’s office to prevent more questionable spending. That move — together with Gilzean’s spending — left the office unable to pay its workers, and the county had to step in.

Earlier Tuesday the Board voted to restore funding to the office, with a payment of about $1.7 million.

“I’m happy to see her there,” Diamond told commissioners, referring to Castor Dentel. “I think in light of some of the irregularities we discovered there in the past few weeks or months over there, I think taxpayers can be a lot more comfortable.”

He appeared at the Tuesday news conference with Castor Dentel.

“The days of public disputes between his office and this office is now over, and we’ll work together as partners,” she said.

_____