Glen Gilzean cannot continue to serve as Florida’s ethics commission chairman and work as the administrator of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Disney World oversight district, according to a legal opinion released Thursday.
State law does not allow public employees to serve on the government watchdog panel, Steven Zuilkowski, the ethics commission’s general counsel, wrote in the analysis.
Gilzean, chairman of the ethics commission, was hired in May to lead the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. He earns an annual salary of $400,000 as the district’s administrator.
“[I]t appears that your position as district administrator for the district is public employment,” Zuilkowski concluded.
DeSantis first appointed Gilzean to the ethics commission in August 2019. His present term expires in June 2024. The nine members of the ethics panel, who do not draw a salary, are appointed by the governor and leaders of the Florida Senate and House.
Gilzean, a DeSantis ally, was named to the tourism district administrator post on May 10. The district’s five board members, who approved the hiring, are appointed by the governor.
Gilzean did not respond to a phone message and email seeking comment. A DeSantis spokesman also did not respond to a request for comment.
The potential conflict of interest went publicly unnoticed for months until a report by the investigative outlet Florida Bulldog. Gilzean attended ethics meetings in June and July after he was hired by the tourism oversight district.
He requested the legal opinion on Monday after the Bulldog’s report.
In the legal memo, Zuilkowski wrote that he and ethics director Kerrie Stillman spoke with Gilzean regarding the state statute on April 26.
“During that conference call, Ms. Stillman informed you of the requirement … and you informed us that you had received legal advice elsewhere about holding both positions,” Zuilkowski wrote. “You stated you would contact me if you wanted my legal opinion.”
That call occurred on the same day Gilzean signed an order dismissing an ethics complaint filed against DeSantis by allies of former President Donald Trump, the governor’s rival in the GOP presidential primary.
The super PAC MAGA Inc. filed the complaint, alleging that DeSantis had misused his office to boost his national profile.
The commission rejected that complaint in an order signed by Gilzean concluding it “does not provide an adequate factual basis for this allegation.”
The nine-member ethics commission is tasked with investigating complaints of “breach of the public trust by public officers and employees.” With a staff of about 25 employees, the commission describes itself as the “guardian of the standards of conduct for officers and employees of Florida.”
Board members, appointed by DeSantis and the leaders of the Florida House and Senate, do not receive a salary from the state.
Ethics commissioners can be removed “for cause” by a majority vote of the governor, president of the Florida Senate, speaker of the Florida House and chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, according to state law.
