The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board sued Disney Parks & Resorts in state court this week to nullify agreements signed in February under a former board that the legislature dismantled.
The suit was filed May 1 in Orange County. It alleges Disney, through the old Reedy Creek Improvement District Board, failed to provide notice of public hearings, unlawfully delegated governmental authority to a private entity, lacked authority to enter into a development agreement and violated the Florida Constitution and state law.
Gov. Ron DeSantis created the CFTOD Board earlier this year by signing House Bill 9-B, ending the Reedy Creek Improvement District that was created in 1967 to make decisions independent of the state about land use, improvements, development, and governance related to the Orlando theme park.
“Allowing a corporation to control its own government is bad policy, especially when the corporation makes decisions that impact an entire region,” DeSantis said in a statement online. “This legislation ends Disney’s self-governing status, makes Disney live under the same laws as everybody else, and ensures that Disney pays its debts and a fair share of taxes.”
At issue in the state complaint is not what was agreed to by the Reedy Creek Improvement District but how it was agreed.
“Before this new district took over, the old one had meetings earlier this year where decisions were made that restrict what this new committee can do,” said Santa Rosa Beach real estate attorney Daniel Uhlfelder, who is not involved in the litigation. “The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board is saying there was a failure to provide notice of public hearings. They also allege that Reedy Creek took action beyond their authority and jurisdiction that’s in violation of the Constitution.”
Neither the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board nor the Reedy Creek Improvement District responded to requests for comment.
“In the past, governance of the theme park had been insulated to some degree from politics,” Uhlfelder told the Florida Record. “Now, you've got five people who are appointed by the governor, confirmed by the Senate and so it's becoming a lot more political than it was before.”
The state complaint was filed a week after Disney’s federal suit against DeSantis alleging violations of the First Amendment under the U.S. Constitution.
“If there are overlapping issues between the state and federal court complaints, they will have to be reconciled,” Uhlfelder said. “One court will have to take jurisdiction because otherwise, you could get inconsistent rulings.”
Underlying the confluence of complaints is Disney’s displeasure with the state's new 'Don’t Say Gay' law.
“These are powerful forces that are at odds, and it's not going away anytime soon,” Uhlfelder added. “Disney has a lot of funds, a lot of support, a lot of history and DeSantis has a lot of power. I don't know who's going to back down first. It just seems to be escalating rather than going in the opposite direction.”
The board is being represented by Charles Cooper, David Thompson, Pete Patterson, Joe Masterman and Megan Wold of Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C., and by Alan Lawson, Paul Huck and Jason Gonzalez of Lawson Huck Gonzalez in Tallahassee.