New Disney Board To Take Legal Action Against Disney After Old Board Made Quiet Move To Transfer Power To Corporation

During one of the new board’s first meetings, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ handpicked five-person board overseeing the governance of Walt Disney World discovered that the old board had quietly signed an agreement transferring its power to Disney.

The old board signed the agreement with Disney on February 8th, and the agreement was recorded with the Orange County Comptroller on February 9th. It didn’t take long for the Florida House to pass legislation on the same day, February 9th, that renamed the Reedy Creek Improvement District to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and replaced Disney’s self-appointed board with a board appointed by the governor.

The discovery was made by attorneys hired by the new board when they found out the old board used a common law property rule to extend Disney’s control of the powers. Disney then invoked a “Royal lives clause” to extend the contract’s length further by tying it to the lineage of the Royal family. The document signed by the old board and Disney said that the Declaration would continue in effect until twenty-one years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III of England living on the date of the Declaration.

Board member Ron Peri expressed his disappointment, stating, “This essentially makes Disney the government. This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.” The new board is now prepared to fight Disney in court over the matter, with retained legal counsel.

Disney claims that their actions were in full compliance with Florida law. However, Governor DeSantis and his team are planning to investigate Disney’s past behavior and are pleased that the board has retained multiple financial and legal firms to conduct audits.

In response to the situation, Christina Pushaw, the rapid response director on DeSantis’ political team, tweeted: “Governor DeSantis’ new board would not, and will not, allow Disney to give THEMSELVES unprecedented power over land (some of which isn’t even theirs!) for 30+ years.”