{"id":37996,"date":"2023-10-29T23:08:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T03:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=37996"},"modified":"2023-10-29T23:08:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T03:08:57","slug":"unqualified-and-incompetent-disney-district-employees-quitting-en-masse-after-desantis-board-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/10\/29\/unqualified-and-incompetent-disney-district-employees-quitting-en-masse-after-desantis-board-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unqualified And Incompetent\u2019 Disney District Employees Quitting En Masse After DeSantis\u2019 Board Takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been less than a year since the Florida Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis passed legislation that stripped Disney of the Reedy Creek Improvement District and replaced it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. In that time, the new Board, filled entirely with DeSantis appointees, has shown that it doesn\u2019t fully understand the operational organization of such a vast District. And now, a new story has come out that shows the new Board has \u201cdemoralized\u201d employees and nearly 30 employees have quit since the new Board took over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the departure of more than 3 dozen employees, the district is no longer functional,\u201d the department director who called the district\u2019s new leadership \u201cunqualified and incompetent\u201d wrote in his exit survey. https:\/\/t.co\/cEhXwRwsRX<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) October 29, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to an article from Jason Garcia<\/a>, since the new Board took over for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, employees have felt \u201cdemoralized\u201d and \u201cstressed,\u201d and the new Board \u201cdoesn\u2019t trust the employees.\u201d So far this year, 30 employees have resigned, including half of the senior leadership team in the District. In the past nine months, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has lost a combined 350 years of experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the departure of so much experience and knowledge of the inner workings of the District, one employee said that it \u201cno longer functions,\u201d and the new leadership is \u201cincompetent and unqualified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One employee wrote in their exit survey:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying I am dissatisfied is a recent experience. Since the new Board has been in place and John Classe replaced, the morale and overall feeling of the District has taken a turn. Not a good one. Glen Gilzean has no desire to learn about the good work that is done here nor does he have a desire to learn what the District does. The legacy of this special district is being destroyed by those who have been placed in power here. The BOS and the new District Administrator could care less about the work that needs to be done for the taxpayers. They claim transparency and bridge-building, I see non-transparency and bridge burning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right from its takeover, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District had a mandate from Florida Gov Ron DeSantis to bring more oversight to the District once ruled by Disney. However, to replace the Reedy Creek Board, DeSantis chose political allies with no experience in running a large District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Garcia, the Board\u2019s Chairman, is a lawyer and a major political donor to DeSantis. Board Member Bridged Ziegler is a founding member of Moms For Liberty, a group known for trying to ban books in schools around the country. Board member Ron Peri is a conservative minister who once claimed that \u201ctap water\u201d was turning people gay.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis hired Glen Gilzean as the Board\u2019s administrator, a position that paid $400,000 annually. However, Gilzean was also the head of Florida\u2019s Ethics Commission, which prohibits its members from holding a public sector job. Just weeks before Gilzean took the job with the CFTOD, there were dismissed cases in front of the Ethics Commission against DeSantis. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problems With The New Board<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Board was cheered by the Reedy Creek Professional Firefighters, but they quickly learned the issues facing the inexperienced group. The firefighters negotiated a contract with the new Board, but just before it was to be ratified, the Board went back to the negotiating table, delaying the process by weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board then ran into issues with all Reedy Creek employees after it cut Walt Disney World season passes from its budget. Those passes were given to current and retired employees as part of a perks package from the former Board. Instead, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District voted to give each employee $3,000 to use however they see fit. That cost will not cover Disney World\u2019s season passes with no blackout dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuts to employees\u2019 theme park perks are just the beginning of how the CFTOD is remaking the former Reedy Creek Improvement District. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has cut $8 million in funding from security at Disney World<\/a>, cut $3 million in road improvements to pay for legal fees in its cases against Disney, and, in August, cut all DEI programs and race-based hiring programs in the former Reedy Creek District.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney\u2019s Case<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Walt Disney Company has sued Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in Federal Court, claiming government retaliation for speaking out against Florida\u2019s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics as the \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d Bill. Disney is claiming that the governor violated the company\u2019s First Amendment Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney has also countersued the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in State Court, claiming that the creation of the new Board violated the Contracts Clause of the Constitution. Disney is seeking unspecified damages and is asking the Court to return the Reedy Creek Improvement District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Governor DeSantis and the Board have asked the respective judges in their cases to dismiss Disney\u2019s lawsuit against them. Disney has to respond to those two requests early next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been less than a year since the Florida Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis passed legislation that stripped Disney of the Reedy Creek Improvement District and replaced it with the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[6505],"class_list":["post-37996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-unqualified-and-incompetent-disney-district-employees-quitting-en-masse"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}