You may remember that as one of Ron DeSantis’s culture war gambits he punished Disney’s position on gay rights in the state by abolishing the special government jurisdiction which essentially allowed Disney to run Disney World as its own town or governmental district. That was the Reedy Creek Improvement District. DeSantis had the state legislature replace Reedy Creek with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Now the political appointees DeSantis put on the Oversight District board to lord it over Disney are crying foul, saying Disney pulled a fast one on them and essentially cut them out of any effective power for decades into the future.
On the last meeting of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the then-board approved a series of agreements and restrictive covenants (you can see them here) which, according to the Oversight Board folks, locks them out of any effective power for the better part of a century.
The DeSantis team has called in a right-wing law firm to see if it can get out from under the agreement. The law firm of Cooper & Kirk, surprise surprise!!!, recently hired failed Senate candidate Adam Laxalt and once employed fellow Harvardians Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz.
Disney responds that the then-board did everything in line with Florida law in public session. And well … sucks to be you, Ron, basically.
The covenant even goes in for what seems like some very Disneyified kings and queens and Shrek type trolling. The covenant declaration notes that if the agreement is deemed in violation of the rule against perpetuities the declaration will remain valid until “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.”
Since Charles has recently born grandchildren that would seem to lock this in place for roughly a century. DeSantis board member Brian Aungst Jr. rather lamely opines that he hopes Disney will work with the DeSantis board to correct the situation in a “very collaborative manner.”
