Disney’s feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may not be finished.
The new board of directors appointed by the Republican governor to oversee Disney’s special taxing district announced on Wednesday that it is considering legal action over a multi-decade agreement reached between the entertainment giant and the outgoing board in the days before the state’s hostile takeover last month.
Disney would retain control over much of its vast footprint in Central Florida for 30 years under the agreement, which was quietly approved on February 8 as Florida lawmakers met in special session to hand DeSantis control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. In some cases, the board would be unable to take significant action without first obtaining approval from the company.
According to a footage released by an Orlando news station, board member Ron Peri stated during Wednesday’s meeting, “This practically makes Disney the government.” “For practical purposes, this board loses the majority of its capacity to do anything other than maintain the roads and basic infrastructure.”
The episode is the latest twist in a year-long dispute between Disney and DeSantis, who has been battling the firm as he tries to rack conservative victories ahead of a likely candidature for the GOP nomination in 2024.
According to DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske, the board hired “several financial and legal organisations to undertake audits and investigate Disney’s prior activities” on Wednesday. According to meeting documents, the board was negotiating with four law firms to give legal guidance on the topic.
The Governor’s Executive Office is aware of Disney’s last-ditch efforts to complete contracts immediately before to ratifying the new law that transfers rights and authorities from the former Reedy Creek Improvement District to Disney,” Fenske stated. “A preliminary examination indicates that these agreements may include serious legal flaws that would render the contracts unenforceable as a matter of law.”
Disney defended its conduct in a statement to AWN.
“All agreements signed by Disney and the District were appropriate, and were debated and approved in open, visible public forums in accordance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine legislation,” the corporation stated. According to meeting documents, the February 8 meeting was advertised in the Orlando Sentinel, as required by law.
Several board members did not reply promptly to a request for comment. The Sentinel was the first to report on Wednesday’s decision to hire legal counsel.
According to a statement issued Wednesday night by the district’s acting counsel and newly hired legal counsel, the agreement grants Disney development rights throughout the district, “not just on Disney’s property,” requires the district to borrow and spend money on projects that benefit the company, and gives Disney veto power over any public project in the district.
“The lack of consideration, delegation of legislative authority to a private corporation, limitation of the Board’s ability to make legislative decisions, and giving away public rights without compensation for a private purpose, among other issues, warrant the new Board’s actions and direction to evaluate these overreaching documents and determine how best the new Board can protect the public’s interest in compliance with Florida Law,” Fishback Do said in a statement.
The feud between Disney and the governor arises from the company’s resistance to a Florida statute that limits the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade and only in “age appropriate” ways in higher schools. When outcry over the legislation grew across the country in March of last year, Disney issued a statement offering to assist in having the bill overturned or struck down by the courts.
In retaliation, DeSantis and other Florida Republicans repealed the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special taxing authority that effectively granted Disney ownership of the property in and surrounding its massive Orlando-area amusement parks. However, Republicans in control of the state legislature reversed course this year, voting to remove the district’s oversight board and give DeSantis authority to pick all five replacements. Reedy Creek was also renamed the Central Florida Tourist Oversight District, and some of its powers were removed.
DeSantis filled the board with political cronies, including Tampa lawyer Martin Garcia, a big GOP donor; Bridget Ziegler, the wife of the new chairman of the Republican Party of Florida; and Peri, a former preacher who previously argued that drinking tap water could cause homosexuality.
The scandal is key to DeSantis’ political narrative of a leader unafraid to take on corporate behemoths, especially ones as famous and important to Florida as Disney. It is a narrative that is heavily featured in his new book and one that he frequently discusses at events across the country as he prepares for a possible national campaign.
DeSantis proclaimed at last month’s signing ceremony for the law that granted him control of Reedy Creek’s board, “The corporate kingdom finally comes to an end.”
“A new sheriff has arrived,” he continued.
If Disney has its way, the new power structure may not take control for a long. According to a copy of the agreement included in the February 8 meeting packet, one agreement signed by the outgoing board restricts the new board from using any of Disney’s “fanciful characters” until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England.”
Disney’s covert move spurred DeSantis’ chief electoral challenger, former President Donald Trump, to claim the governor had been outfoxed.
“President Trump penned the ‘Art of the Deal,’ and he mediated Middle East peace,” said Taylor Budowich, a spokeswoman for Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC. “Mickey Mouse just out-negotiated Ron DeSantis.”
The governor’s political operation asserted that DeSantis’ appointees were holding Disney accountable.
“Governor DeSantis’ new board would not, and would not, allow Disney to grant THEMSELVES unprecedented power over land (some of which isn’t even theirs!) for 30+ years,” DeSantis’ fast reaction team member Christina Pushaw wrote on Twitter.