Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District has undergone some massive changes, and another has just been made.
Reedy Creek Building
Over the past several months, much of Disney’s control over the District has been stripped away, a new Board of Supervisors has started to take action, and lawsuits have been filed (both by Disney and against Disney) regarding the District. But there’s a new update.
As ClickOrlando reports, in late May, Michael Sasso — one of the members of the Board of Supervisors for Central Florida Tourism Oversight District that had previously been appointed by DeSantis — resigned from his position on the Board.
This resignation followed DeSantis’ appointment of Sasso’s wife, Meridith Sasso, to the Florida Supreme Court. At the time of the original reporting, ClickOrlando noted, “Sasso has not yet publicly said why he backed out of the role,” but “[t]here has been no connection made between this [meaning his wife’s appointment to the Supreme Court] and Michael Sasso’s resignation from the CFTOD board.”
©Sasso Law
Since that resignation, it has been unclear who would replace Sasso, but now we have an update. According to a press release on the website of Governor Ron DeSantis, DeSantis has appointed Charbel Barakat to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
DeSantis’ press release states that Barakat is the “Regional General Counsel for D.R. Horton, Inc.,” current Commissioner for the “Second District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission,” and a person who serves on the “Florida Development Finance Corporation.”
©GIO Morales Obtained via Tampa Bay Business Journal
Bararkat is also “Vice President of the Federalist Society for the Tampa Bay Chapter and Chairman of the Volume Builders Council for the Florida Home Builders Association.” He obtained his “bachelor’s degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University and his juris doctor from New York University School of Law.”
According to ClickOrlando, Barakat already serves on those two state boards (Second District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission and Florida Development Finance Corporation) as a DeSantis appointee. Federal records have also shown that Barakat has “contributed thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and groups over the last few years, including to DeSantis in 2022.” Interestingly, Barakat was also a one-day champion on Jeopardy! in 2018.
Note that Barakat’s appoint is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate, so we’ll be waiting on updates there.
©Reedy Creek Meeting Livestream (April 19th Meeting)
The Board also recently introduced a new District Administrator named Glenton Gilzean.
According to a WESH news report, Gilzean reportedly has ties to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and is known as a “supporter of Gov. DeSantis, who has appointed him to several other positions, including the Florida Commission on Ethics.”
©Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board
As the new District Administrator, Gilzean explained, “My job is to make this district and, in turn, this region, a better place.”
Click here to learn more about the new District Administrator and his plans for the District
This update comes shortly after Disney announced that the company no longer plans to invest $1.3 billion in the Lake Nona project. The project was expected to bring more than 2,000 jobs to the Orlando area, and over 1,000 Disney employees from Southern California would have relocated to this new campus in Flordia.
Lake Nona Town Center ©Lake Nona
Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Josh D’Amaro explained that the decision was made in part due to “changing business conditions.”
Disney Canceled a $1 Billion Project in Orlando. So What Happens To All That Land?
The next Reedy Creek Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled to take place on June 21st, so we could see Barakat participate in that meeting for the first time. We’ll be on the lookout for updates.
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Disney should move to Georgia let them get some of the money and I am sure they would love all the new jobs.
Ronnie learns slow, don’t he….
Hey Disney how’s going Woke working out for you? Your stock price is lower today than it was eight years ago.
Desantos needs to be impeached and arrested for human trafficking and human rights violation as well as violation of oath by attacking a USA corporation that is leading to a severe financial distress to the Florida economy. I’m calling for an impeachment.
Disney has been screwing the paying public for years and no one could do anything. Charging too much for admission then wait in line for hours. You never get your money’s worth but Disney doesn’t care. Stick it to them DeSantis
Disney move the Entire park OUT of Florida let them find another
DeSantis is an infant. Every move he makes is an attempt to show us how tough he is and in each new battle he hurts the state of Florida.
Disney is his stupidest blunder because the ultimate result has to be hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in the state and hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue and why, because Disney, a private company built upon compassion and inclusion and equality – especially kids voice support when DeSantis attacked a small, vulnerable community. Like a spoiled child with no impulse control DeSantis then attacked Disney, arguably the largest driver of income in the entire state and the second biggest employer and a company that’s the largest contributor to the Florida government and even Republican campaigns. The self-inflicted harm upon Florida by DeSantis will be immeasurable.
The leader in Germany in the 1930’s surrounded himself with yes men willing to do his bidding as well.
Well I have lots of concerns about the Governor but one that concerns me being the parent of two Redheaded stepchildren . Has this demographic of children been given guidelines on how not to look so ? Well Stepchildish a safezone should be allocated from the State of Florida Hypocrisy Fund . The DeStroyer is coming for you .
DeSantis is too stupid to become president and nobody likes him. Everyone I talk to says he’s an *******.
Florida is going down the toilet. Sad
The Federalist Society is causing a rot within our Federal, Political and Judicial system along with the Supreme Court. There is a corruption happening in front of us, that needs to be investigated
Can’t even run state!!should be impeached!! If u can find him lol
I’m sick and tired of reading about Disney and it’s boo-hooing about Reedy Creek. It was a privileged development contract that expired. Florida wanted oversight capabilities and will get it. The State of Florida will win. Ron DeSantis will win! Maybe Disney can throw Ron an inaugural ball in Orlando. Disney had gravy train for over forty years. Now it’s time to step in line. Iger is full of it. He “ain’t* going nowhere and he knows it. Too much invested here and Disney is hurting; since COVID took a lot of their anticipated revenue away.
Boo-hoo my heart bleeds for your BILLIONS!
The governor of Florida is an a****** Disney bring in Revenue to the state of Florida without Disney what would Florida look like
Well hopefully the Disney board will do something about the share price. Destantis and Disney board are drawing over the share holders. The last time l looked the price per share was around 84.00 only 2 plus years ago it was 201.00 per share ! Would you guys kiss and make up.
Is this what the people of Florida voted for? Total nepotism on the cusp of corruption, very distasteful.
DeSantis needs to stop battling with Disney and pass a law to do something with these parents leaving their children or pets in hot vehicles and they end up dying! That should be a priority!
Is there anything that the Meatball is doing that puts
Florida first and not his political agenda?
What do the tax payers of Florida have to pay Ronnie
while he campaigns for President any company would fire him.
This is really funny Desatan appoints one of his donor’s in a position to actually help Desatan and he has appointed him to other boards in Desatan’s favor so sounds like a little stacking these boards in his favor isn’t right and something needs to be done about his rigging every position in his favor just like gerrymandering maps to get his 2nd term as governor that he isn’t going to finish the 4 years like he took the oath to do. [redacted]
I hope the voters of Florida and this country realize how much money he’s costing the state of Florida. He can’t make a business stay in Florida or keep investing their funds and future growth plans there. Hmmm why does he remind me of Ronald Reagan oh yeah Reagans “Trickledown Economics”!! They went sideways to only the rich!!!?!! Another B.S. lame brain idiotic scam!!!
Good luck with that whole running for president thing Ronnie boy.
You kill off an iconic national treasure for millions of families for generations and honestly believe you have the countries support ?
Thank You for the laugh !
Disney Should move leave Florida with a couple of empty towns and better yet don’t sell make them pay dearly for the garbage land
This will not hurt Disney they will still make a profit but the population of Florida will lose with higher taxes to pay for what Disney used to pay for infrastructure. Desantis is just being vendictive, not a good trait for a president
Another DeSantis top donor. I called it. Then again, we’ve seen this before. Government trying to take over the most powerful companies and install their friends as the people in control of those companies. So it wasn’t hard to predict.
Bad for the economy, bad for the state. C’mon, Ron, grow a brain.
It’s time for DeSantis and Iger to get in a room and work out a compromise that benefits both Florida and Disney. People forget that Disney threw the first punch and LIED about legislation. It’s time to fix this fiasco.
This all boils down to two things – Republican appointees (watchdogs) who will make decisions based upon their loyalty and not what’s best for the state or corporation (Disney), and aggravating the largest employer and taxpayer in their own state. I’m afraid what we have here is a Mexican standoff, a situation where no one emerges a clear winner, especially the residents of Florida.
I believe DeSantis is a temporary thorn in Disney’s side. DeSantis has other agendas. If things keep going downhill with DJT, DeSantis could very well be the presidential nominee and he will be concentrating on his campaign. On the other side of the coin, Disney can pull back on spending in Florida as long as they want, as they have many other sources of income. As I said – a Mexican standoff.
Disney, Universal, etc. should join in solidarity and all shut down for a month to perform ‘necessary maintenance’. Let’s see what happens to DeSatanist’s presidential bid.
Immediate backlash because the governor is a conservative. If a democratic governor was making these changes, it would be applauded by the liberals. No one actually cares what this is about…it’s just politically motivated BS.
DeSantis is such a poor loser imagine if he’s President and doesn’t agree with anothwr country is he going to go after them the same way ? Poor loser
Just imagine if DeSantis becomes President DeSantis and Disney has to make an animatronic of him to add to the Hall of Presidents. I know they were dying when they had to add Trump. Lol
Please explain logically how they move to Georgia? Do they just get a bunch of giant cranes and lift all of the parks and buildings? They don’t have the billions of dollars that it would require to build another WDW.
So what does all this mean to the park goers?
This reminds me of when middle schoolers don’t get their way.
Disney thinks it owns Florida and orlando. It’s time someone got them under control. They cause a lot of traffic problems for everyone in florida and those crossing Florida. They also control to many prices in Florida and typically don’t pay their employees well in comparison with the high prices they charge the public. They seem to funnel to much money into buying more land and growing Disney into unrealistic size and not enough into helping Floridians and their employees. The orlando airport and our highways are also way overpriced for parking and high traffic created by Disney. Let them move Some of their projects to Georgia. Georgia Beware. Disney will soon own Georgia too. It’s time Disney provided more to Florida and took less. It’s time they realized Floridians own Florida not Disney.
Sharon – Georgia already has Stone Mountain Amusements – LOL!! But really, we can safely guess that it would cost at least $1 Trillion and fifty years to move WDW to Georgia. And the other problem is that there is no way Georgia would allow a Greedy Creek type sweetheart deal in their state….Darn Republicans are everywhere 🙂
Disney doesn’t have to move…they can out wait the current regime. The pendulum always swings, even if Florida doesn’t.
I say to those who think Disney has been screwing the public for decades with their high prices, if you think it’s too costly, go somewhere else. I spend my vacation dollars in places I want to, not in those I don’t. No one is forcing anyone to visit Disney.
Also, the Reedy Creek contract with Florida has not expired and will not do so until July, 2028. That said, this fiasco is a result of a thin skin governor try to bully a corporation that pays billions in taxes into his state every year. What a fool. Cutting off his nose to spite his face. He may be popular in Florida, but not so in other states.
We know exactly why he resigned is because Desatan has Sasso wife (judge) in his pockets and Sassos is on the board and if his wife gets the case then she’ll have excuse herself so appointing her isn’t going to do Desatan any good
Desantis is a a little small man filled with hate and I don t agree with remark about democrats appaulding for that and Disney made Florida the destination vacation state and the whitehouse doesn’t need the small man with napoleon complex n it already had a whack job n it and this thing n Florida is busy removing books so what’s next people m Florida he’s out to destroy peoples rights and I have family n Florida that say the same thing about that dictator and that’s what he is so Florida u better wake he makes the rules that he likes and doesn’t care who it hurts
I live in Florida plus I am a annual Disney passholder for many years. DeSantis is taking my state backwards and if you don’t agree with him he will do to you what he is trying to do to Disney. DeSantis is a ‘little man’ up against a huge corporation and my money is on Disney. If you don’t know I will tell you that there are over 2000+ corporations in the state of Florida that have special districting as Reedy Creek does, but you notice none of them are being singled out or picked on by him. This is just Disney because they dared to speak out against DeSantis and one of his awful laws. Disney was excersizing their right to free speech! As far as I know, we had that in the USA unless he took that away from us Floridians too! DeSantis is a petty litlle man who wants to be a dictator. His ego was hurt by Disney! Too [redacted] bad, DeSantis!!
Sterniac – Don’t you realize Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Beaches and EVERY other Tourist attraction in the State of Florida are overjoyed with the reins being put on Reedy Creek?