{"id":34597,"date":"2023-08-14T12:55:18","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T16:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=34597"},"modified":"2023-08-14T12:55:26","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T16:55:26","slug":"state-ethics-commission-chair-gilzean-has-a-400000-conflict-of-interest-as-the-new-boss-of-disneys-usurped-special-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/08\/14\/state-ethics-commission-chair-gilzean-has-a-400000-conflict-of-interest-as-the-new-boss-of-disneys-usurped-special-district\/","title":{"rendered":"State ethics commission chair Gilzean has a $400,000 conflict of interest as the new boss of Disney\u2019s usurped special district"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida Commission on Ethics Chairman Glenton \u201cGlen\u201d Gilzean Jr. has an ethical problem \u2013 an unacknowledged conflict of interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The nine-member ethics commission calls itself \u201cthe guardian of standards of conduct for officers and employees of Florida and its political subdivisions\u201d and investigates \u201ccomplaints of the breach of public trust by public officers and employees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the commission\u2019s rules say \u201cno member may hold any public employment<\/strong>.\u201d Yet for months, Gilzean has remained as chairman despite becoming a public employee in May when he accepted a $400,000-a-year job as administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) \u2013 formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District when that governing authority was under the control of the Walt Disney Company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilzean\u2019s job received much notice in the news. But none of the nine non-salaried ethics commissioners, who elected Gilzean to serve as their chairman, appears to have been aware of his emerging conflict. Commissioner Jim Waldman even told the media in an interview on Friday that he knew of no prohibition on ethics commissioners holding public employment. Informed later of the language on the commission\u2019s website, Waldman said Gilzean\u2019s public employment \u201cdoes appear to be a conflict under the rules of the commission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will GIlzean quit his new, high-salaried job or the ethics commission \u2013 or neither? He did not respond to Florida Bulldog\u2019s requests for comment left with his district office staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilzean \u2014 who grew up in Lauderdale Lakes after his family emigrated from Jamaica and now lives in Ocoee, just outside Orlando \u2014 came to his new job via Gov. Ron DeSantis \u2013 who also appointed Gilzean to the state ethics commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GILZEAN GETS THE JOB<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, following DeSantis\u2019s highly publicized scrap with Disney after the company came out against the controversial Parental Rights in Education Act \u2013 dubbed by critics as the \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d bill \u2013 an obliging Florida Legislature helped DeSantis seize control of the special taxing district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, the Legislature changed the district\u2019s name and gave the governor the power to name its five board members. DeSantis\u2019s handpicked CFTOD Board of Supervisors then chose Gilzean, a DeSantis favorite, as the district\u2019s new administrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney has sued DeSantis, the CFTOD board and Gilzean, alleging it was victimized by a \u201ctargeted campaign of government retaliation \u2013 orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney\u2019s protected speech.\u201d Disney contends the governor\u2019s action \u201cthreatens Disney\u2019s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region and violates its constitutional rights.\u201d The CFTOD board has countersued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilzean\u2019s financial disclosure form for 2022, filed with the ethics commission last month, listed his three primary and one secondary sources of income. It does not require he disclose his net worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilzean listed his primary sources of income as the Central Florida Urban League, where he served as president and CEO until taking the CFTOD post; Gilzean Ventures LLC, a consulting firm; and Next EDU Inc., a for-profit education company. His secondary source was listed as Top of The Class, another education company whose major source of income is Step Up For Students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GILZEAN AND THE URBAN LEAGUE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilzean has a solid conservative, Republican pedigree. For example, he\u2019s a fellow of the James Madison Institute, which advocates for \u201cfree markets, limited government and economic liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the ethics commission, DeSantis appointed Gilzean to the Florida Census Statewide Complete Count Committee in 2020 and during the COVID-19 pandemic to the Reopen Florida Task Force. He also chairs the state\u2019s African American History Task Force. Previously, Gov. Rick Scott named Gilzean to the Pinellas County School Board in 2012, the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) Board of Trustees in 2013 and the Ninth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilzean has twice drawn the ire of National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial this year, once when he was still heading the Urban League\u2019s Orlando affiliate. In February, after Gilzean wrote a Black History Month Op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel strongly backing the governor\u2019s assault on Advanced Placement African American studies, Morial repudiated Gilzean\u2019s position, calling the governor\u2019s stance a \u201cblatantly political effort to ban AP African American History from Florida\u2019s schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Aug. 2, after Gilzean announced that he would abolish diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at the Central Florida Tourism and Oversight District, Morial called Gilzean\u2019s action a \u201cbetrayal of the values at the very core\u201d or the Urban League\u2019s mission. \u201cHis crass political expediency is all the more offensive given his previous vantage point to the harm he knows it will cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilzean has also used his perch as chair of the African American History Task Force to defend controversial new teaching standards adopted in the wake of a new law, approved by DeSantis, that limits how racial history can be taught. The changes drew anger for reactionary passages like this: \u201cslaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Commission on Ethics Chairman Glenton \u201cGlen\u201d Gilzean Jr. has an ethical problem \u2013 an unacknowledged conflict of interest. The nine-member ethics commission calls itself \u201cthe guardian of standards of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[5674,5673],"class_list":["post-34597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-000-conflict-of-interest-as-the-new-boss-of-disneys-usurped-special-district","tag-state-ethics-commission-chair-gilzean-has-a-400"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}