Things are CHANGING for the House of Mouse.
via Twitter
Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District has been changed in some key ways. Recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that changes the name of the District, alters some of the District’s powers and responsibilities, and replaces the Board of Supervisors with individuals appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. And DeSantis has already appointed some individuals to the new Board. Just who are they? Let’s take a look!
In terms of a brief summary, know that Reedy Creek functions essentially as its own county government. Its Board of Supervisors (which governs the District) has the ability to make decisions about various things within the district including fire services, emergency services, waste management, land use, and more.
As we identified above, one key change made with the new law that addresses Reedy Creek is that the Governor now has the ability to appoint all 5 members of the new Board of Supervisors that governs the District. Under the previous arrangement (that had been in place for over 50 years), the majority landowner in the District (a.k.a. Disney) had been able to appoint the members of the Board.
Reedy Creek Fire Department Sign
Disney previously filled the Board with members who were expected to be “friendly” to Disney’s interests. Disney no longer has that power. That’s a critical change to the arrangement.
According to The Orlando Sentinel, Governor DeSantis has named “politically connected Republican allies” to serve on the board for the new District — which will be called The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (we’ll refer to it generally as “the District”). While DeSantis has indicated that, in his opinion, the new board members will draw on their experiences in law, business, and government, Democrats have “blasted the picks as unqualified.”
Representative Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, shared, “It’s incredibly alarming.” Just keep in mind that while the members have been appointed by the Governor, they must also be approved by the Senate in order to serve. The Sentinel points out, however, that the Florida Senate is “solidly controlled by Republicans who support DeSantis,” so essentially it is generally expected that they will be approved.
First, we have Martin Garcia. Garcia is a lawyer in Tampa who will serve as chairman of the Board of Supervisors. Garcia, through his investment firm — Pinehill Capital Partners — has donated around “$260,000 to political campaigns in Florida, including $53,000 to DeSantis and $25,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.”
And Garcia chaired Pam Bondi’s run for attorney general in 2010. Garcia was also reportedly involved with the situation surrounding DeSantis’ decision to oust Andrew Warren, the Democratic Hillsborough County State Attorney General. Reportedly, a member of DeSantis’ team said that they spoke with Garcia (and others) about a “push to take on ‘woke’ prosecutors.”
Garcia does not appear to have any records of disciplinary history within the last 10 years according to the Florida Bar. In a press release on the Governor’s website, Garcia is described as having “owned and operated a successful private equity investment firm and served on the board of a NASDAQ and three New York Stock Exchange companies.”
Magic Kingdom
Next up is Bridget Ziegler. Ziegler is a member of the Sarasota County School Board and the wife of “the newly elected chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.” Ziegler was actually the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which the Orlando Sentinel described as “an education group that has called for book banning in public schools.”
In a press release on the Governor’s website, she is described as being “the Director of School Board Programs at The Leadership Institute” and as having “over a decade of experience in commercial insurance working with two of the largest global risk and insurance brokerage firms.”
Honored to serve @GovRonDeSantis & Floridians on the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board. https://t.co/2DOipijpk2
— Bridget Ziegler (@BridgetAZiegler) February 27, 2023
In a press release on the Governor’s website, Peri is also noted as being the “founder, Chairman, and CEO of the airline software company Radixx International, Inc. after serving as Vice President and CTO of AirTran Airways.”
Disney World
The next member is Michael A. Sasso. Sasso is an attorney in Seminole County and “president of the Orlando chapter of the Federalist Society,” which the Sentinel describes as “a conservative legal group.” Sasso also serves on the Ninth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission (which is also appointed by the governor). That Commission typically recruits, interviews, and then certifies nominees that are being appointed to circuit and county courts.
He does not show any disciplinary history on the Florida bar within the last 10 years. In a press release on the Governor’s website, Sasso’s practice is described as focusing on “election law and complex business and construction litigation.” Sasso also serves as “the Public Employees Relations Commission and as a trustee of Valencia State College.”
©Sasso Law
The final individual DeSantis has appointed is Brian Aungst Jr. Aungst is an attorney from Clearwater and the son of the former mayor of Clearwater. He serves on the Sixth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission. He also does not show any disciplinary history on the Florida bar from the last 10 years.
In a press release on the Governor’s website, Aungst is described as having “previously served as the Chairman of the Pinellas County Commission Redistricting Committee.” He reportedly also has a “growing land use law practice where he has gotten approval for hotels, condominiums, affordable housing developments, and the redevelopment of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.”
EPCOT
So, will these Board members essentially do more of the same as the old Board or will they take a different approach? Richard Foglesong seems to think the Board could take a “radically different approach” to governing the District. According to the Sentinel, Fogleson (who wrote a book on the origin of Disney World), said “It is not clear to me the kind of people he appointed to Reedy Creek board are going feel the need to work collaboratively with the business executives.”
While the bill surrounding the changes to the District was being debated in the Florida legislature, some introduced amendments that would have barred individuals that had contributed to the election of the Governor from sitting on the Board. Other amendments would have stopped individuals from being appointed to the Board if they contributed to a political committee affiliated with the Governor. Those amendments ultimately did not pass.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ©Deadline
What could this new Board do that could potentially impact Disney in big ways? Representative Eskamani warned that the Board could potentially do things — like shooting down safety measures, road projects, or construction — to put pressure on Disney to end things DeSantis might not like.
Eskamani warned, “They could say Disney can’t do Gay Days anymore by dragging out zoning for a new project.”
©WFTV 9
So far, DeSantis has indicated that the Board will be meeting next week and that one of their first acts will be to work on the terms of a new agreement with the fire department (WESH). We will continue to keep an eye out for more news about these new Board members, what they ultimately do in the District, and how it’ll all impact Disney’s plans.
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DeSantis failed to tell people that WDW has always paid taxes and has always been responsible for their infrastructure, etc. With these right-wing political hacks, WDW can probably forget about trying to work with the state to improve things for Disney. This group will use every little grievance to screw over Disney, as well as all the people going there. Count me as one of those people who refuses to go back to WDW (or FL for that matter) until it’s a more welcoming (and less fascist) government running the state. Book banning? Seriously??
Don’t see a problem.
Looks like a good Board of well-qualified individuals to me. I trust they will dedicate themselves to this job and prepare wisely and thoroughly for important decisions.
Pretty hard to figure out which of them is the worst. Probably a toss up between the book banner and the Christian nationalist.
The board shouldn’t be appointed by the governor. These positions should be voted on much like a school board or HOA. It must be miserable living in a state in which the governor thinks he knows what is best for everyone. Perhaps he should take a step back and realize that central Florida would likely still be nothing but swamp with a fraction of the population and tax revenue if not for Disney and the development that occurred throughout the region as a result.
Funny how Republicans used to want businesses to be free from any government regulation.
Now it seems that they just want full control.
We can only hope that the appointment of these political stooges will ultimately blow up in Arrogant Ron’s face. He’s showing us what he is, and we should all beware of his vengeful autocracy.
This isn’t government controlling a business. This is state government controlling what amounts to a county government. Full Stop.
Yikes! These comments, while certainly diverse, are full of vitriol. This is an important lesson on why businesses need to stay out of politics. At best, you alienate 50% of your customer base when you wade in. I find it interesting that this was Chapek’s first response, to lay low and work behind the scenes. Florida has benefited from Disney and Disney has benefited from Florida. I do not see the new Reedy Creek to be materially different from the old, except with a new name and new signs. I hope that is the case. This is what Walt wanted, the ability to develop the parks without undue interference from the state and local government, like he experienced in Anaheim, CA. Florida remains a pro-business state.
Isn’t it ironic how some people claim Disney should’ve stayed in its lane and not commented on politics, and yet the punishment/retaliation for doing this was the appointment of politically skewed people to the board of their district? Hmmm…
If DeSantis really cared about how much power Disney has in the state of Florida, why did he do nothing about it prior to this? There’s a simple answer: He doesn’t really care. He’s using this wedge issue for political optics in order to cultivate a narrative that redefines the word “woke” in a way that riles up his base. “Woke” is not a bad word, but thanks to manufactured narratives and culture wars like this one, many hardcore conservatives are now convinced that it is, and they blindly believe that parents would somehow lose the right to participate in how their children are educated if DeSantis didn’t “come to their rescue” with his legislation.
For DeSantis, it’s all about appearances. For all his bluster, he could not succeed in dissolving the district or in taking away their tax-exempt status, because those things proved to be more logistically and fiscally complicated than he anticipated. He’s good at posturing, though, so his base will simply eat this up like Kool-Aid flavored candy and take his word for it that this was a major “win.”
From Britain, at 53 I’ve watched through my life, presidents from Reagan to Obama fascinated us across the pond, some great leaders for sure , but this new lot and maybe future presidents worry me a lot . Your governed for the people not your own agenda’s , very sad
Sounds good to me. Disney shouldn’t have had the privileges that they had with the district to begin with.