It looks like Glen Gilzean is shifting from governing Disney World to managing Orange County’s elections office.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Gilzean, now Administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD), to replace retired Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles.
He was tapped by a board made up entirely of DeSantis appointees to lead the replacement for the Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District. DeSantis weeks ago held a press conference touting the new tourism district as a model of local government, though the transition has brought about an employee exodus.
But Gilzean has stood by the changes made by the governing district, many of which address problems in an audit of prior practices. He recently said the district has been on a hiring spree to fill vacancies.
Gilzean takes over the Supervisor’s Office days out from the March 19 Presidential Primary. Early voting in Orange County is already underway.
The appointment notably shifts the office from oversight by a Democrat to a Republican, in one of the handful of counties that Democrats carried in the 2022 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections, where Republicans dominated statewide.
Gilzean is not one of eight candidates already filed to succeed Cowles. That includes Democrats Karen Castor Dentel, Lawanna Renee Gelzer, Dan Helm, Wes Hodge, Ricardo Negron-Almodovar and Michael Scott, Republican Joseph Davis, and no-party candidate Cynthia Harris.
Gilzean previously chaired the Florida Ethics Commission, but resigned amid concerns that also leading the CFTOD represented a conflict of interest. He also served as President and CEO of the Central Florida Urban League, as Vice President of Step Up for Students and on the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) Board of Trustees. He also held office as a Pinellas County School Board member in 2012.
He previously worked in the Florida Department of Education as a regional field director from 2006 until 2009.
Cowles won the Supervisor of Elections post in 1996. He led the office through a number of high-profile statewide election events including the 2000 presidential recount, as well as the 2018 gubernatorial recount, where DeSantis won by about 0.4% of the total vote.
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