Disney's final Developer Agreement between Reedy Creek Improvement District and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts appears to have severely handicapped the Ron DeSantis-appointed board of the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight board.
Signed into effect on February 8, just as the Florida House passed the legislation to take control of Reedy Creek Improvement District, the new Developer Agreement gives Disney significant control of the RCID landing and prevents the new board making any changes to the agreement.
At today's special meeting, where the board discussed the new Developer Agreement, one member said, "We lose control over everything other than to maintain the roads and maintain the infrastructure."
Board member Brian Aungst said, "We gave governmental control to Disney."
The legal council for the new board said that various agreements were made over the past several months that were "unusual" and "suspect."
In a brief statement following the meeting, Disney said, "All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida's Government in the Sunshine law."
The Governors office released the following statement this afternoon, "The Executive Office of the Governor is aware of Disney's last-ditch efforts to execute contracts just before ratifying the new law that transfers rights and authorities from the former Reedy Creek Improvement District to Disney. An initial review suggests these agreements may have significant legal infirmities that would render the contracts void as a matter of law. We are pleased the new Governor-appointed board retained multiple financial and legal firms to conduct audits and investigate Disney's past behavior."
You can review the February 8 Reedy Creek Improvment Dsitrcit Developer Agreement here.
One aspect of the agreement contains an interesting timeframe for the document's term.
This declaration shall continue in effect until twenty one (21) years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England living as of the date of this Declaration. Notwithstanding the foregoing or anything to the contrary herein, this Declaration will terminate as of the date that none of WDPR or any of its Affiliates (or their respective successor entities) owns any real property within ten (10) miles of the RCID Properties.
The legal wording makes use of the Royal Lives Clause, a common practice in the United Kingdom in the past century to tie up a trust to a living person who was expected to have one of the longer life expectancies in the population. This article explains more.
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, 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."