Posted on 03/30/2023 8:14:38 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
So it looks like the battle between Gov. DeSantis and Disney isn’t over yet. In January a DeSantis spokesperson announced that “The corporate kingdom has come to an end.” But the new board members weren’t actually in place until the end of February after DeSantis signed a law to put them there.
Capping a year-long feud with one of the state’s largest employers, DeSantis signed into law a bill officially granting a new state-appointed board the responsibilities of Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District and named a slate of conservative leaders.
The newly appointed members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District include Bridget Ziegler, a vocal proponent of DeSantis’s education policies, including the Parental Rights in Education bill dubbed by critics as the “don’t say gay” law that Disney leaders opposed last year. Also named to the board: Ron Peri, who heads the Gathering USA, a Christian ministry, and three attorneys, including the president of the Federalist Society’s Orlando chapter.
And it turns out that during the interim, the old Disney-controlled board handed all its actual power over to Disney in perpetuity leaving the new DeSantis’ appointed board with almost no power.
Ahead of an expected state takeover, the Walt Disney Co. quietly pushed through the pact and restrictive covenants that would tie the hands of future board members for decades, according to a legal presentation by the district’s lawyers on Wednesday…
The previous board, which was known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District and controlled by Disney, approved the agreement on Feb. 8, the day before the Florida House voted to put the governor in charge.
Board members held a public meeting that day but spent little time discussing the document before unanimously approving it in a brief meeting.
Disney released a statement saying, “All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law.” But new board member Ron Peri suggested the agreements seemed dubious.
Peri described the timetable outlined in the developer agreement between Disney and the Reedy Creek board, which was put into effect on Feb. 8.
“I’m going to read to the term of this restrictive covenant. ‘This declaration shall continue in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England, living as of the date of this declaration,’” Peri said. “So, I mean, I don’t know what else to say. I think these documents are void ab initio, I think they were an extremely aggressive overreach, and I’m very disappointed that they’re here.”
I’m not an attorney but void ab initio is a legaleze way of saying the agreement may be void from the start. Finally, the Governor’s office also released a statement:
The Executive Office of the Governor is aware of Disney’s last-ditch efforts to execute contracts just before ratifying the new law that transfers rights and authorities from the former Reedy Creek Improvement District to Disney. An initial review suggests these agreements may have significant legal infirmities that would render the contracts void as a matter of law. We are pleased the new Governor-appointed board retained multiple financial and legal firms to conduct audits and investigate Disney’s past behavior.
So I guess this will be fought out in the courts where I suspect Disney has a small army of lawyers to make their case that this is legal. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the courts say about it.
Great idea
Disney has enormous amounts of political pull and money.
How many mice does DeSantis have? /sarcasm.
The local board members flipped DeSantis off for this, for a great reason. The people they represent are beholden to the Mouse, and you don’t rock the boat in a company town.
Claw it back!
In such cases, since a tax revenue stream exists or will be created by development on the property, bonds can be issued to finance infrastructure and services. In that manner the developer or property owners can avoid having to front the costs. The bond holders do that instead, expecting to be paid back from future tax revenue.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District went further. The District board was effectively under Disney's control, had broad local government style planning and permitting powers, and extended over large areas not owned by Disney. This made Disney exempt from having to get planning and permits from anyone other than their captive district board. In effect, Disney World had governmental powers.
The new district board appointed by DeSantis is not separate from but is the successor to the original Disney controlled board. In that manner, Disney now has to answer to DeSantis appointees instead of to no one but itself.
Why not just a county board? More local control, in this case Orange and Osceola.
There’s already a provision in FL law for review. It can be overturned without even going to court.
Doesn’t even need to go to court. Under regular order this is subject to the review of a state board which would take a very dim very of this maneuver no matter who attempted it.
Disney is a bunch of corrupt, evil bass turds. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah! IMHO.
I didn’t know that- but I hope everyone noticed that Disney (on its own) created the biggest tourist attraction in the world.
Imagine if they had to fight with the government for permission for every road they wanted to build
We’d still be waiting for the Castle to be complete.
This is a good example of what can be accomplished under CIVILIAN -vs- GOVT control.
Seems to me the state controls the issuance of business licenses. What do you do when you have an entity that has its licenses revoked? It’s no longer a business. Oops.
Checkmate!
Yep. Clearly illegal contract. A board meant to supervise can’t give its power away without a higher governance that made the board legal doing so.
Local governments in Florida are subject to state law... this is the Governor & Legislature using their power to reign in a private entity with government authority under special privileges not afforded to their competitors.
Yeah, and Hitler built the Autobahns...
The Disney that built Disney World was nothing like what it has become.
Today it is a monster that old Walt would have been aghast about.
What an ignorant comment
CHECK THE BANK ACCOUNTS OF EX-BOARD MEMBERS.
Oh come on.
you really believe that?
“Oh come on. you really believe that?”
I guess it’s possible that he got taken. Probably should have spent more time worried about his backyard, than trying to get in good with GOP Big-Bucks types.
A locally appointed board would be a good option. And, logically, it might also make sense for the three large Orlando area parks to all have roughly equivalent levels of regulatory supervision and taxation and from the same entity.
DeSantis really blew this one.
If that is the actual quote, then it might fail by the fact that there is no “King of England”. The legal title Is King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
But I have a feeling it will fail for other reasons.
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