Ron DeSantis ally Glen Gilzean is the front-runner to become the new administrator of Walt Disney World's governing district

Apr 26, 2023 in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

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Posted: Wednesday April 26, 2023 11:43am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

During today's Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board meeting, it was announced that Glen Gilzean is the front-runner to take over the job of District Administrator.

The <strong>Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is in search of a new District Administrator</strong>

Gilzean is an ally of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who appointed him to the Florida Commission on Ethics. He was also part of DeSantis' working group for reopening Florida during the COVID pandemic. Gilzean currently serves as the President and CEO at Central Florida Urban League, an organization tasked with ending generational poverty and promoting equality.

Existing District Administrator John Classe, appointed by Reedy Creek Improvement District, is expected to remain in his position to aid in the transition to the new administrator.

The appointment of Gilzean would mean that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District's board and administrator are all hand-picked allies of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The action by DeSantis to strip Disney of its self-managing district came in retaliation to Disney's public opposition to the Parental Bill of Right law, which took place under ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Speaking at the Reedy Creek firehouse on February 27 when signing the bill to end Reedy Creek, DeSantis said that Disney's opposition to the Parents Bill of Rights bill was a "mild annoyance," but that the state of Florida will no longer be "joined at the hip with one California-based company." After signing the bill DeSantis said, "the corporate kingdom finally came to an end."

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MR.Dis20 minutes ago

Once everyone puts aside their personal biases and looks at this objectively can see both sides of this issue made major mistakes. That is why we have the compromise that now stands. This is not a one side was all right while the other side was all wrong. Way more nuanced than that, and if you do not believe me there are 1254 pages of this forum you can review.

Dranth41 minutes ago

Cry like a spoiled child? Right. So, you do nothing wrong, the government steps in and alters they agreement THEY WILLING joined in using questionable tactics, disregarding their own procedures they setup and you should sit there and take it? Is that is how you deal with things in your own life or does this only apply to others?

MR.Dis59 minutes ago

What part is bull?? That Disney misjudged that the state would step in??? No one has ever said they did not have the legal right to do so.

lazyboy97o1 hour ago

This is bull, which you know. State law very clearly allows for districts controlled by land ownership. Other such districts don’t even need people living there.

MR.Dis1 hour ago

Correct. Absolutely have the right to decide who lives on their property. However you know and I know that this is not the point. If you hand pick who lives in a special district, than you cannot cry like a spoiled child when the State steps in to hand pick the members of the board. Disney, I am sure knew this was a losing argument. There are so many nuances to what happened, but as I have stated several times cooler heads prevailed and there is now a frame work for the CFTOD to do the boring work on managing the district.

peter114354 hours ago

What places are like that? What places don’t get to vote for their mayors, council, and governors? It is not distorting the situation at all.

Disstevefan15 hours ago

Well, yea, RCID did need “residents” and TWDC did own the land so, yea I guess they should hand pick the residents. As for the other businesses within the district, whatever. I was never for dissolving RCID. I benefited from RCID because I had a family member that worked for RCID and the perks he got seemed BETTER than cast member perks. TWDC was at the right place at the right time and central Florida would not be what it is today without TWDC and RCID, but we all must know that RCID was an extension of TWDC; and RCID was controlled by TWDC and to be honest they did a good job. The parks, roads, infrastructure was perfectly safe. I worried CFTOD would get in the way and would slow down anything being done at WDW. I think there is no worry about that so far. Disney works slow enough as it is.

lazyboy97o6 hours ago

Yeah it’s so weird that a property owner gets to decide who lives on their property. I’m sure you’d just let anyone camp out on your yard.

JoeCamel6 hours ago

Some places are like that but to claim there is no representation is distorting the situation

peter1143510 hours ago

By that logic why do we bother having elections for mayors and city councils? Why not just let the governor appoint those too. Why stop there. Just let the president appoint governors too. After all we got to elect the president so we still had a vote.

mikejs7818 hours ago

There are many issues with FL law with what the state did. Trouble is the courts in FL are stacked with DeSantis appointees.

Disstevefan119 hours ago

On the other hand, the "residents" of RCID were hand picked by Disney. There were two little cul-de-sacks of mobile homes within the district and those were the hand picked residents of RCID.

JoeCamel19 hours ago

You elect the governor and they appoint the board so you still have a vote. In any case I think that would be a federal complaint not one tried in the state courts

tecowdw19 hours ago

On thing I've always wondered why it wasn't mentioned by Disney... The CFTOD board is 100% appointed by the State with no representation from the actual land owners within the municipality. They have no voting rights to pick who represents them on the board. Now I realize that was kind of the point of the whole political issue but how is that not unconstitutional - taxation without representation? Doesn't every municipality have to do general elections to pick their board representatives? Even RCID did that.