JohnD
Well-Known Member
As I said, whether she should still recuse herself is debatable as you're debating here, but he is removing himself as a potential conflict of interest now.
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News Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District
- Thread starter castlecake2.0
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lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Could it not be as simple as moving to Tallahassee and not caring to bother with the ongoing logistics of staying on the Board?
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The case would still center around actions to which her husband was a party. Him resigning only removes conflict regarding future actions and future litigation.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Wouldn’t she just recuse herself? I don’t think there would be any criticism if she recused herself, unless they think they somehow need that vote to swing the court, but that seems pretty unlikely.
This seems very likely. That’s not a close commute.
I wonder if the redignation has something to do with the closed meeting with tge lawyers. I thought the closed session lasted longer thsn usual. I also thing he knows they will lose the case and the Board can be shown to have not acted in the interest of the property owners they can be legally liable for their decissions and have to pay that liability personally.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The Board is not personally liable.
Only if they are operating within their legal feduciary responsibiliy. I contend that they are not and if DVC owners and other business owners got together we can legally sue the Board members personally and I hope a lawyer will try l. I am glad though that one member did resign as I asked on May 1. I only wish the rest of them did too.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Under what law do they carry personal liability? It’s not within the District’s charter. They are not acting in a personal capacity.
The whole board resigning doesn’t change anything. It’s meaningless. Filling the vacancies is done by the governor.
The Board members are not personally liable. They are/were acting in their capacity as supervisors of the OCTOD Board.
Your concept of fiduciary responsibility is erroneous in this instance. The members of the Board are in essence agents of the government and have the legal authority, both by statute and charter, to supervise the operations of the District as deemed necessary.
Only IF it can be determined in a court of law that a member of the Board substantially and personally benefited from an action of the Board could a member be personally held liable. But in actuality what would happen is the Board would be sued and the member removed from the Board.
JohnD
Well-Known Member
Sigh. Now everyone wants to argue for the sake of arguing. His wife is being appointed to the state Supreme Court. He was being sued in his capacity as supervisor of CFTOD. He is removing himself as a potential conflict of interest. It's as simple as that. Put another way, the husband of a state Supreme Court Justice was being sued by Disney.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
No, it is not as simple as that because it does not remove the conflict.
I would think that's the primary motivation. It's a 4 hour drive from WDW to Tallahassee.
And as members of the Legislature who live in South Florida know, few options available to fly into the airport. And no direct flights - have a layover in either Miami, Ft. Lauderdale or Atlanta. A flight time of 3-5 hours that a direct flight would be 45 minutes.
Maybe he realized that the board’s actually job is white boring and couldn’t be bothered anymore? 1 down… 4 to go?
If a past action by her husband in his former capacity as a member of the OCTOD Board of Supervisors could be deemed a conflict, she's free to recuse herself.
Newly appointed justices of the Florida Supreme Court undergo a merit retention vote at the next general election that occurs more than one year after their appointment. For Justice Sasso, that would be the general election in 2024. It's a statewide vote. If the majority of the voters disapprove, she's removed and a replacement named. If approved, she serves a 6 year term. But is up for a retention vote before her six year term expires.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
If?
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The governor will just appoint a new Board member. It doesn’t really change anything unless the governor somehow appoints someone who disagrees with the current direction of the Board.
Why do you think Meredith Sasso's appointment is "in flux"? The Florida Senate doesn't confirm gubernatorial appointees to either the Florida Supreme Court or Appellate Courts.
I've not read any reports that she won't accept the appointment. Have you, @JohnD?
You asking that any judge, who's spouse acting as an agent of a unit of government, participated in an action as part of their official duty as said agent PRIOR to appointment to a specific court, recuse themselves. After the spouse resigned to avoid conflict.