News Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

[GoofGoof]

I feel like Disney has time on their side. They are not going to be impulsive like the Desantis is. They are going to look at all the options they have and will be ready when they need to be.

As others have said the board can say the grass is purple it won't change anything until it is acted upon. Also can they even make all these decisions seeing as I think they have yet to be approved by the Senate?

Agreed. I’m not getting my hopes up yet, but some GOP members of the FL legislature have already expressed they are tiring of the Governor‘s crusade. Even in his own speech he acknowledged that the legislature blocked his plan to add tolls to roads near WDW. As a bunch of us have been saying for 700+ pages now Disney is playing the long game. They are talking about 10 year plans and growing their business. They want to portray an image of business as usual….and business is good .

As far as Senate approval that one is really bizarre. Why wait? It almost seems like maybe DeSantis wants to keep it as the DeSantis appointed board to take credit. That credit ain’t going the way he wanted. He’s getting killed from both sides.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Would you dispute that the actions were retaliatory when those behind them have repeatedly and proudly acknowledged them as such?

Of course they were retaliatory.

But I don't have an exhaustive library of the relevant case law in my head to say with certainty that it meets the legal standards that would need to be proven to prevail in a lawsuit.

 

[tissandtully]

"It wasn't happening anyways, yet I'm very upset that it was banned."

I've never really found that to be a good argument, especially from small government party. Let's make MORE laws for something that doesn't happen, but the new law we're making is so vague it can cause more consequences than previously thought.

 

[mkt]

Would be curious to know how Disney’s thinking has been affected by stock price and investor concerns over the last twelve months. Chapek was seemingly ousted for that reason, so taking a litigious path might call more attention to the vulnerability of the company’s long-term financial plan.

If they did use financial damages as part of their lawsuit, that could either upset investors (why didn’t you act sooner and how much have we been impacted?) or reassure them (WDW’s numbers have been solid even with the state’s meddling so they only stand to get better).

These are all legitimately solid questions.

 

[tissandtully]

Hey, how about that new RCID board??

 

[GoofGoof]

People act like Disney retained Dewey, Cheatem and Howe. I guarantee you the Disney legal team isn't going to get sucked in by histrionics or people's feelings on what should be done.

If notices weren't sent to certain people, it was done on purpose. It may have been a calculated gamble, but it wasn't because Disney didn't read the statute or forgot to put the notices in the mail.

They're playing the long game here and there really is no way to predict what's going to happen. We're just having fun on a discussion board!

I meant to respond to this earlier but got distracted. Back on topic.

This is just a wild theory with no actual facts to support it and assumes no notices were sent which we don’t know to be true but hear me out. Someone mentioned pages ago that FDOT technically owns some land adjacent to the district. If the lawyers determined that FDOT would qualify as an impacted landowner that would be problematic. If RCID sent notice to multiple other land owners but skipped FDOT that may seem really suspect too. Is it possible that’s the reason they didn’t send notices out? FDOT would obviously inform the Governor and they could accelerate passing the bill to seize control of the district before the agreement was officially done. I would assume if they did that they would have looked at precedent in past cases and looked at the risks associated with the contract being voided over failure to notice. Just a wild theory but as you say, if that step wasn’t taken it was most likely skipped on purpose.

 

[mkt]

Hey, how about that new RCID board??

You mean the CFTOD board.

The
who are
ing up
The
Orlando
Disney area

(guess the missing words correctly, and you win a fresh high five!)

 

[SirLink]

Well there is nothing left to discuss about the entity formally known as RCID as the thread is on loop

• Disney did the right thing / Florida government did the right thing
• Florida government did the wrong thing / Disney did the wrong thing
• Disney will find a way to win / Florida government will find a way to win
• Inclusivity is important (even if it means one group will have less rights) / There are no systemic injustices they just have to work harder

And repeat ad nauseam its clear people have their made their mind up, there is in reality no way to change peoples minds.

 

[lewisc]

Just a wild theory but as you say, if that step wasn’t taken it was most likely skipped on purpose.

Also possible Disney was considered to be the only impacted landowner and written notification wasn't necessary.

 

[Fordlover]

These are all legitimately solid questions.

For sure. Disney is supposed to have a fiduciary responsibility to the share holders. Making business decisions that aren't in the interest (long or short term) of returning value for the shareholders is a violation of that responsibility.

 

[GoofGoof]

Also possible Disney was considered to be the only impacted landowner and written notification wasn't necessary.

That was my initial conclusion but others here convinced me that’s probably not the case. It is still possible that was their conclusion. They also have 50+ years of actions to point to so they could argue the agreement changes nothing for adjacent landowners since Disney has been doing this activity for years.

I am no lawyer and don’t have the case history to know who would typically qualify. I would bet good money that the FL firm Disney hired has extensive experience with these types of development agreements and would have those facts.

 

[UNCgolf]

Don't they have a legislative GOP supermajority that effectively makes the governor a lame duck?

Serious question.

They didn't until recently, when someone who was elected as a Democrat switched parties. I think it remains to be seen if that person is going to vote party line with Republicans, though -- she'll certainly lose her seat next election because she came from a heavily Democratic district in Charlotte.

I actually wonder if she will be sued by constituents, considering they elected her on the basis of a very different platform.

 

[Heppenheimer]

I meant to respond to this earlier but got distracted. Back on topic.

This is just a wild theory with no actual facts to support it and assumes no notices were sent which we don’t know to be true but hear me out. Someone mentioned pages ago that FDOT technically owns some land adjacent to the district. If the lawyers determined that FDOT would qualify as an impacted landowner that would be problematic. If RCID sent notice to multiple other land owners but skipped FDOT that may seem really suspect too. Is it possible that’s the reason they didn’t send notices out? FDOT would obviously inform the Governor and they could accelerate passing the bill to seize control of the district before the agreement was officially done. I would assume if they did that they would have looked at precedent in past cases and looked at the risks associated with the contract being voided over failure to notice. Just a wild theory but as you say, if that step wasn’t taken it was most likely skipped on purpose.

Maybe I missed the details in the hundreds of responses and sidelines, but if the land FDOT owns is outside the district, how can they be an affected party?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Devil’s advocate: could you argue that the more time they’ve given for Gov. DeSantis and his cronies to bury themselves with both public statements and in the court of public opinion the more this is favorable for TWDC in the long term? If nothing else the land use contract with the outgoing RCID has bought them more time and further shown the motivation Governor and his appointees.

Ultimately I just feel TWDC at least historically is a large public company that despite all the “woke” criticism that gets thrown around tries desperately to appeal to the broadest audience possible in a mostly apolitical fashion. So it’s difficult for them to go scorched earth and look like the aggressor in the eyes of the general public. They don’t have the benefit of appealing to a narrow part of a partisan base like the governor and unlike DeSantis - who gets political mileage out of this from folks that see “wokeness” as the gravest national threat since bubonic plague - from a business perspective keeping this going is not advantageous to TWDC writ large, this is also broadly embarrassing to the state of Florida as a tourist destination or any companies residing there and probably the Florida Chamber/AFLCIO/etc. Disney doesn’t want to be blamed for fanning the flames of a temper tantrum.

That said I agree that this risk averse strategy (appeasement, as you call it) hasn’t obviously cooled tensions.

It’s definitely possible that Disney had a better long view of the situation than I did. It definitely would have been a very wise call that this would end up backfiring on DeSantis back when he was very much riding high on the situation.

But, I’m not sure how someone would have predicted that. What’s really been egg on DeSantis’ face was the land development agreement and restrictive covenants. Yeah, people had lost interest by February but the reconstitution itself wasn’t really an embarrassment. Had DeSantis called the special session just one week earlier and not waited around to sign, the reconstitution could have been done before the second public hearing and approval. So either Disney had fantastic intelligence on when the special session would be called and recklessly timed it to the wire or they got incredibly lucky.

 

[mf1972]

this thread has turned into a hydra. i cut myself away from reading it after getting caught up & 5 more pages pop up shortly after

 

[JusticeDisney]

Wait wait wait.

I was assured that they had an ironclad First Amendment claim because these actions were INDSISPUTABLY retaliatory for their speech?

You are simply not comprehending. Whether that ultimately proves to be the case or not is irrelevant at this point. Until and unless the state does something to actually "void" the agreement, there is no basis for Disney to go to court. Hyperbole and false bravado are not actionable in this instance.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Hyperbole and false bravado are not actionable in this instance.

That's LITERALLY my point.

I wasn't saying "Disney is obviously going to sue and win summary judgment within hours." I was mocking the people who were saying that.

 

[SirLink]

this thread has turned into a hydra. i cut myself away from reading it after getting caught up & 5 more pages pop up shortly after

Same especially at work and get annoyed at everything I read

 

[MR.Dis]

Disney has not acted because they are risk averse cowards. That’s it. Plenty of actual harms have occurred. They thought appeasement would work. They wrongly assumed that if they just sulked away then that would be enough and it would go away. The assessment wasn’t one of right or wrong, it was about what assumed to be the easiest.

Even now, with clear attempts to impair contracts, Disney might not act. They might again convince themselves that “this time they’ll actually stop.”

If I am reading you correctly, do you believe that Disney is not going to pursue any legal law suites? It appears that both the board and the Florida Legislature/Gov are going to do everything possible to void contracts-- whether what they do is legal or not. Stepping back, I believe a whole bunch of pages ago you stated that no construction will start without first getting permits--which the new board now controls. So why fight this in courts if the end result is you are going to still have to go thru the board? Am I reading this wrong? As a moderate republican, I am really disappointed on how Florida has totally mishandled this whole situation. And while I initially hoped that Disney could learn to work with the new board, those Covenants now have escalated this to a personal vendetta. Legal or not, in your opinion how do you see this working out?

 

[lentesta]

You know, going back and reading the original RCID charter, Section 23(3)(d) , which deals with zoning laws and comprehensive plans, might say the Board isn’t required to give notice.