Ron DeSantis appoints his presidential campaign donor Craig Mateer to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

31 days ago in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

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Posted: Wednesday March 27, 2024 8:30pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced the appointment of Craig Mateer to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

Craig Mateer, of Orlando, is the founder of CCM Capital Group and was the founder and owner of Bags, Inc. He was a campaign donor for DeSantis' failed presidential bid and DeSantis had previously appointed him to the State University System's Board of Governors and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.

This appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.

A position on the CFTOD board became available earlier this month when Martin Garcia, board chairman of the Ron DeSantis-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, vacated his position.

Garcia's departure came just days after CFTOD administrator Glen Gilzean took a new job as Supervisor of Elections in Orange County.

The next CFTOD board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

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flynnibus1 hour ago

THe TLDR is…. We don’t know…. But clearly Disney and DeSantis’ camp do. We just have to wait to see what they agreed to

lazyboy97o1 hour ago

The 2020 plan is back as the guide to the zoning. No word still on what the Board thinks needs to be changed. No actual start on that process but the development agreement was somehow supposed to come first and then, in contradiction to its purpose, be changed after a new plan was developed.

MisterPenguin1 hour ago

This means the 2032 Zoning Plan is not in force, correct? They now have to come up with a plan that the new board approves of, right?

lazyboy97o3 hours ago

Control of what? A new development agreement, which has to lock in what already exists, still hasn’t even been presented for public review.

mkt5 hours ago

I'll call them pragmatists. Pragmatists with control.

lazyboy97o13 hours ago

They don’t have control. They are hedging for the near future that they might be targets on a wider scale.

mkt15 hours ago

It's not a compromise. Disney doesn't actually care about the free speech argument. Disney has quietly restarted political contributions (the true reason behind all of this) and now maintains control over their land with a board that will be friendlier while reserving the right to restart the federal appeal if an unfriendly board re-emerges. At the same time DeSantis can claim he won, and his supporters will not question it. All Disney wanted was control and to stop the damage to their image.

tecowdw1 day ago

Just goes to show that the whole thing was just a political stunt. Now that the political steam has ran out on this issue, it actually operates like it is suppose to. A good sign that maybe CFTOD and Disney can live amicably after all. And I'm sure they definitely will once the remnants of Desantis and his original board cronies are all long gone and forgotten. It was always a given that Disney would be around long after those political individuals' "15 seconds of fame" ended. I wonder if Garcia, the vocal Disney critic, leaving the board was part of a back room deal to get Disney to drop their lawsuits and renegotiate the RCID development agreement. Maybe that's also how an experienced new administrator got put in place as well. I can't imagine Disney just relinquished all of it's lawsuits/agreements without ensuring they had something valuable in return since they are +80% of the district's tax base in land ownership. They just aren't that stupid! ;) At the end of the day, while Disney lost control of their municipality, it's in everyone's best interest to work together for the common goal of bringing tourist dollars in to the maximum potential. Central Florida could be a very different place had Disney not been able to expand their operations for 51 years with RCID.

GoneViral2 days ago

Happy days are here again.

MR.Dis2 days ago

I just read a report that the CFTOD meeting was a boring managing the district business, just like the old RCID days. No protests and very little attendance. No mention of the pending negotiation of the developement agreement.

DCBaker4 days ago

The agenda and documents for the CFTOD Board of Supervisors meeting is now available at the link below. Included in this packet are documents related to the FY2023 Annual Financial Statement presentation and an annual audit by Cherry Bekaert, LLP. As a head's up, the meeting has shifted an hour from previous times - it is scheduled to begin at 10:30am. https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-Packet-4-24-24-Final-P.pdf

flynnibus9 days ago

Looks to be moved https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-04-24-24-Agenda-Outline.pdf

wdwmagic9 days ago

Amazing, there is actually some real business on the agenda for a change.

DCBaker9 days ago

The agenda outline for the next CFTOD meeting on Wednesday, April 24 is available at this link*: https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-04-24-24-Agenda-Outline.pdf *Edited to update as the link was changed after posting (thanks @flynnibus!).