Writer: Joshua Andino
2 min read May 2023 — The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board is meeting May 10 for the first time after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill allowing the hand-picked board to ignore prior agreements with Disney.
The board will meet at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort. It will be the first regular meeting after the members were officially confirmed by the Florida Senate earlier last week. The meeting agenda includes discussion and potential action over the selection of a financial firm to assist in setting 2024 utility rates; the consideration of an employment agreement with the current District Administrator John Classe Jr. as a special adviser to the board, and the consideration of an employment agreement with Glenton Gilzean Jr., as district administrator. Gilzean currently serves as the president of the Central Florida Urban League.
The meeting will mark the latest salvo in the year-long conflict between the governor and the state’s largest employer after Disney faced employee pressure to come out publicly against the Parental Rights in Education Bill, or “Don’t say Gay.” Both are currently involved in litigation, with Disney filing the first lawsuit in federal court against the state on April 26, claiming a campaign of government retaliation against the company in violation of its First Amendment rights, with the CFTOD voting to countersue earlier this month.
The lawsuit states that, “A targeted campaign of government retaliation — orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech — now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”
“Since then, the Governor, the State Legislature, and the Governor’s handpicked local government regulators have moved beyond threats to official action, employing the machinery of the state in a coordinated campaign to damage Disney’s ability to do business in Florida. State leaders have not been subtle about their reasons for government intervention. They have proudly declared that Disney deserves this fate because of what Disney said. This is as clear a case of retaliation as this Court is ever likely to see,” added the complaint.
The bill, SB1604, which DeSantis signed on Friday, allows the board to retroactively roll back development agreements within four months of the CFTOD board’s start. A second, HB1305, from the Infrastructure Strategies Committee, Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee, and Transportation & Modals Subcommittee, imposes new regulations on fixed guideway transit systems in special districts that operate in two contiguous counties. Only one such system exists within the state of Florida fitting that narrow description.
“We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state. This lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law,” Taryn Fenske, communications director with DeSantis’ office, said in a prepared statement to the Orlando Business Journal.
DeSantis is gearing up for a presidential run and has spent the legislative session ensuring his priorities, including a modification of the state’s resign to run rule was implemented, allowing him – and other state officials – to maintain their positions as long as they are specifically running for president or vice president. With the legislative session ending last week, DeSantis now seems poised to announce his candidacy over the next few weeks, and has made his campaign against Disney a central part of his platform.
Disney, for its part, has been relatively mum on the issue, working quietly in the courts to reverse the implementation of the new laws, with CEO Bob Iger saying at an April shareholders meeting that, “Any action that supports those efforts simply to retaliate for a position (Disney) took sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
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