DeSantis Controlled Board Makes a Shocking Move Just Before Thanksgiving
DeSantis has control over the board that oversees Disney World. However, the board has not been without drama the last several months as they strip employee benefits and are in an on-going legal dispute with Disney. Now, they have made another shocking move just days before Thanksgiving.
Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD)
When the state of Florida dismantled the Reedy Creek Improvement District, they replaced it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD for short). Essentially, it is now the governing body for Disney World.
Any new construction, laws, or amendments Disney wants to make will now have to go through the CFTOD.
Of course, with Disney no longer its own governing body, some issues have popped up. This is not at all surprising, especially when you consider that the five board members were all appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Issues
First, there's the fact that the district stripped away Annual Pass benefits for employees, and they are still debating on how to resolve the issue. You can see the latest in this story.
Then, it was uncovered in a new report that it was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, not the state of Florida, who intentionally targeted Disney (and Disney alone) in transportation and attraction inspection legislation. That full story is right here.
And, of course, Disney and the board are involved in their own legal dispute that is separate from the federal lawsuit Disney and the state of Florida are involved in.
Fired Before Thanksgiving
We just learned that the board fired four high-ranking employees just days before Thanksgiving. The four employees include the communications director, a Human Resources executive, an HR admin assistant, and the facilities maintenance specialist.
This comes just after over two dozen employees left the district, citing low morale and a toxic work environment as the cause for their departures.
DeSantis' board fired four high-ranking employees the week of Thanksgiving.
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DeSantis is a 2nd class Trump wanna be. The difference is that Trump's motivation was to gain adulation of his cult while DeSantis is constantly fishing for press. It's sad. It would be nice to see him actual address an actual issue that affects Floridians but we will not see it
In the past year we had 7 new deveolments behind our house plus 4 town house developments along 27. Takes an hour to drive 16 miles. Taxes and insurance have gone sky high, he can't govern FL let alone run for president. Time he starts doing his job.
Ronny is literally a terrorist. Economic, politically, intellectually. That Florida voters continue to support that despot PAB, reflects their true value as patriots and humans. Zero. Absolutely zero. MAGA and excise the MAGAt party, Trump and the rest of his acolytes, from society.
DeSantis's only motivation is his ego. He focuses on the irrelevent for headlines. Did he include obnoxious Harley Davidsons in his noisy car stereo law? No, 'cause HD folk are his type of voters. He's a second class phony.
Yup, because ...
"Bikers are a rare breed. Harley riders are a dime a dozen."
The strange thing is that desantis kind of looks like Mickey!
Desantis is a petty tyrant. Knows nothing about leading anyone or anything. His sole purpose seems to be causing rage for those that did not vote for him. Meanwhile insurance costs skyrocket, every square inch of land seems to be getting built on or is about to be built on, the environment is crashing and all he cares about us being an anti woke warrior. Oh, and busting unions... but only of they are teacher unions.
I think on Desantis need to learn how to Govern Florida with the insurance rates and everything else wrong with this state and leave Disney alone they have done well for the last 50 plus years running it
A few weeks ago, former employees of CFTOD said its leadership is incompetent. Now it looks like CFTOD is taking action on certain senior leaders of the organization. Which is it -- removal of incompetent leaders or ruthless and wrong-headed moves by DeSantis' team? I admit anyone being let go for any reason right before Thanksgiving or Christmas is "bad show," using Disney parlance, or "bad form," as our cousins in England might say. These moves could always be made next week. Or maybe there are other reasons that we don't know about, such as the presence of conflict of interest regulations that necessitated several people leaving CFTOD a little while ago, which stated that a person could not work for two governing agencies with the appearance of overlapping responsibilities. Thus is the nature of conflicts of interest. Appearance is as important as substance. I am not willing to castigate CFTOD over this just yet until we learn more. And we may never learn more given that these are personnel changes.
The complaint of incompetence was about the DeSantis appointed Board, not the longtime employees who were just fired by the board.
They quit because of all the freebies taken away. Freebies paid by taxpayers !!! Good!
That’s wrong. Taxpayers don’t pay for any of the “freebies.” Disney doesn’t take any money from taxpayers. They completely fund themselves.
That was true when Disney controlled the district, but the new district was going to have to pay for the annual passes.
The taxes in question are almost entirely imposed on people visiting or utilizing Disney properties, and the employees in question are providing services to Disney properties. It was a sensible employee perk when everything was done in-house. Your city, county, and state taxes are not being used for Disney infrastructure - at least, that was true until the state took control. Florida is spending money on Disney now that they never spent in the past. It boggles my mind why the state of Florida wants to be involved in a private company's infrastructure services.
Did your parents have any children of worth, or is the entire tree diseased?
Can anyone explain legitimate reasons for DeSantis doing all of these things??
It seems like he just has it on for Disney.
Help me out here.
"It seems like he just has it on for Disney"
He does - plain and simple. He's got a hair in an uncomfortable place for anyone who disagrees with his agenda. And that he hasn't gone after the other big parks that are all within 40 minutes of each other, including Universal, SeaWorld, LegoLand, Busch Gardens, and the locally infamous I-Drive (which has seen more than its share of deadly accidents in the last few months) tells you all you need to know about his intentions. The man even suggested putting a state prison on the lands adjacent to the park, for heaven's sake, just to spite them.
I'll say nothing about the rest of the mess that he's left us with or the other nasty, partisan, "small man" shenanigans he's executed during his failed bid for the White House. But to answer your original question - yes ... he has it on for Disney. Florida is where the 1st amendment goes to die .. and DeSantis is the executioner.
DeSantis is an extremely vindictive person. Disney embarrassed him by opposing Desantis' "Don't Say Gay Law."
There is no "Don't say gay" law. "Gay" isn't even mentioned in the Parental Rights in Education bill
Linda - We can talk about semantics all day long - is the word "gay" in the bill? No. Does it clearly prohibit discussing sexual orientation? Yes. You and I both know what bill is being spoken about and that it was the catalyst for this asinine fight DeSantis decided to pick with Disney.