The new board governing Disney’s special district will learn on Wednesday that agreements designed to strip them of their powers are null and void, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Disney secured a premature victory last month after striking deals with the longtime board of the Reedy Creek Improvement District before handing over power to a five-member panel appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
But a person familiar with the investigation into the deals said they were executed illegally and are therefore “not worth the paper they’re written on.”
Reports from last month claimed that Disney had won the war with DeSantis over governance of the jurisdiction where the entire theme park is located, along with its resorts.
Disney tried to get the last word by entering into agreements written entirely by Walt Disney Co. lawyers. and were given to the old board for signature, which would render the new board useless by giving all power over the district to the company before the overhaul.
walt disney co. celebrated too early, thinking it had won a war with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by pushing through two deals with the old Reedy Creek board before the new one took over
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board will meet Wednesday to hear a presentation on how the deals designed to strip them of their powers are void because the old board failed to provide proper notice, a source known to was with the research on DailyMail.com
Investigators will tell the new DeSantis-appointed board on Wednesday that these deals are null and void and they can move on to govern the formerly specially designated tax district.
Disney overplayed their hand after their victory lap. Comes to find that all of their agreements are legally void,” the source told DailyMail.com.
Florida law prohibits board members from meeting as a group outside of public hearings, so Wednesday’s presentation will be the first time the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board has heard about the issues with the deals.
As the board meets, DeSantis will deliver two separate speeches in the early primary contest state of South Carolina, spreading the word about the Florida Blueprint for America.
Speculation is mounting that DeSantis plans to announce a bid for the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential race. He is the only candidate close to competing for former President Donald Trump.
A big part of DeSantis’ blueprint is addressing corporate involvement in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments. This is a form of investing in which companies with a lot of money can use their resources and finances to influence political and social issues.
This is something DeSantis believes is wrong, and something he has cracked down on Walt Disney Co. for speaking out against his law on parental rights in education, which prevents the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in classes for children through third grade.
Since then, DeSantis and Disney have been at war – they came to a head when the governor took control of the special district that allowed the company special privileges that other companies in the state do not have.
What makes the Reedy Creek deal with Disney illegal, the source told DailyMail.com, is that the old board failed to send notice of the hearings they held to pass the new contracts with Disney, which is under Florida law must be done in the public notice period.
In addition, there was no quid pro quo to ensure the deal was balanced.
The person familiar with the investigation told DailyMail.com that the board will learn that while the Reedy Creek board essentially gave Disney local government powers, the district got nothing in return.
Reedy Creek Improvement District was established in 1967 and gives Disney special privileges. In DeSanti’s war with Disney, he wrests jurisdiction from its pro-Disney board and renames it the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District with its own five-member board.
“One of the things we usually think about in a contract is that you have to give compensation or something of value,” the source explains. ‘It’s a quid pro quo. You know, I have to give you something, you have to give me something so that we have a binding contract so that we both have to act under it.’
“And so the district here gave a lot to Disney,” they added. So this gives Disney all those powers of a local government, and Disney doesn’t give the district anything back. At best, Disney says, “Hey District, if you ever need to buy property from us for any reason in the future, we’ll sell it to you at the fair.” At least that’s what the law requires. So that’s a lost theory.’
Essentially giving a company the powers of a local government is also against Florida law because of a non-delegation doctrine in the Sunshine State.
“What they’ve done is they’ve delegated so many government corps duties to Disney that it’s against our case law on non-delegation, and it’s another reason these documents, these agreements are just null and void,” the statement said. source. .
“They’re just not worth the paper they’re written on.”
When a notice period is not properly executed, the whole process has to start from scratch – and the new board will not be willing to enter into an agreement made entirely by the company they want to regulate.
Disney was given special privileges and exemptions when the Reedy Creek Improvement District was created in 1967.