ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says he is considering suing the Supervisor of Elections Office over expenditures on non-budgetary expenses that include scholarships to Valencia College and funding for CareerSource Central Florida.

The elections office has more than $4 million left from the money earmarked for elections spending from the tax-funded budget, and Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean is using $2.1 million to fund student scholarships to Valencia College.

Gilzean said the funds will go to hundreds of students as part of the “Orange County Promise of the Future Scholarship Fund” — which he hopes will encourage civic engagement by requiring recipients to volunteer at the polls or the Supervisor of Elections Office.

The scholarship is open to students at Jones High School and Evans High School, with the goal of increasing voter turnout in “key voting deserts,” according to Gilzean.

The Supervisor of Elections Office also entered into an agreement to give $1.9 million to CareerSource Central Florida to cover program costs for qualifying Orange County residents. According to information from the agreement, the goal of the collaboration is to incorporate voter registration into workforce projects.

Gilzean said he inherited a budget when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him Orange County Supervisor of Elections following the retirement of Bill Cowles earlier this year. Gilzean said his goal was to use the extra funds to invest back into the people, and taxpayers, of Orange County.

“The community has come to me multiple times asking what I’m going to do to get young people involved. What are you going to do to increase voter turnout in key voting deserts?" Gilzean said. "This is just one way to not only solve those two problems while simultaneously getting young people civically minded, civically engage. I truly believe that is the best form of investing taxpayer money, and I will never back down from that.” 

Demings said a potential lawsuit against the Supervisor of Elections Office will seek to recover funds used 'inappropriately."

"We do not fund the Supervisor of Elections Office to enter into agreements to provide scholarships," Demings said. "I remain concerned and I want to make certain this situation doesn't repeat itself in the future to the extent we can."

Orlando civil attorney David Diaz, with the Rivas Law Firm, said Florida statutes would likely allow the county to sue the Supervisor of Elections Office over the use of taxpayer funds.

"I don't believe there's anything criminal here, because that would require some sort of malicious intent," he said. "However, I do think that it's a civil lawsuit, and substantial monies and a breach of the fiduciary duty that the Supervisor of Elections (has) towards the taxpaying public."

When asked about the lawsuit Thursday, representatives at the Supervisor of Elections Office declined to comment, citing potential litigation.