Did Disney Just Outsmart DeSantis?

[jaxlongtimer]

You can't make this stuff up, not even in a Disney movie!

Disney lawyers engineered agreements between Disney and the outgoing (i.e. Disney appointed) Reedy Creek board delegating much of Reedy Creek's authority to Disney and/or giving Disney veto power over most board actions. Meetings on the agreements were done in compliance with the Sunshine Law and it looks like DeSantis and his henchmen were just caught napping. 

This will be fun to watch! Looks like the new board has retained at least 5 law firms to look into this.  Says a lot about their worries to undo it.  Love it!

Disney quietly took power from DeSantis’ new board before state takeover

The battle between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may not be over yet.

The new board handpicked by the Republican governor to oversee Disney’s special taxing district said Wednesday it is considering legal action over a multi-decade agreement reached between the entertainment giant and the outgoing board in the days before the state’s hostile takeover last month.

Under the agreement – quietly approved on February 8 as Florida lawmakers met in special session to hand DeSantis control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District – Disney would maintain control over much of its vast footprint in Central Florida for 30 years and, in some cases, the board can’t take significant action without first getting approval from the company.

“This essentially makes Disney the government,” board member Ron Peri said during Wednesday’s meeting, according to video posted by an Orlando television station. “This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintaining the roads and maintaining basic infrastructure.”...

....In a statement to CNN, Disney stood by its actions.

“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 company said. Documents for the February 8 meeting show it was noticed in the Orlando Sentinel as required by law....

....According to a statement Wednesday night from the district’s acting counsel and its newly obtained legal counsel, the agreement gave Disney development rights throughout the district and “not just on Disney’s property,” requires the district to borrow and spend on projects that benefit the company, and gives Disney veto authority over any public project in the district....

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/politics/desantis-disney-board-control/index.html

[marcuscnelson]

We were discussing what Disney took advantage of (Rule Against Perpetuities) in Property Law not too long ago. Absolute killer move by Disney here. And a real flop for DeSantis in not paying attention to what was happening right in front of him.

[jaxlongtimer]

Too add insult to injury, look at how the life of one part of the agreement is determined.  Poking the elephant.  Hilarious!

DeSantis’ Reedy Creek board says Disney stripped its power

....Among other things, a “declaration of restrictive covenants” spells out that the district is barred from using the Disney name without the corporation’s approval or “fanciful characters such as Mickey Mouse.”

That declaration is 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,” if it is deemed to violate rules against perpetuity, according to the document....

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-disney-new-reedy-creek-board-powerless-20230329-qalagcs4wjfe3iwkpzjsz2v4qm-story.html

[marcuscnelson]

Welcome to Common Law. 

[jaxlongtimer]

Welcome to Common Law. 

Found this additional explanation of the "royal clause":

Disney Just Pulled a ‘Game of Thrones’ Move on DeSantis with a Bizarre Royal Mortality Clause

....Is the Royal Family’s bloodline Disney’s very bizarre way of nodding to the Magic Kingdom and its lucrative Disney Princesses? Maybe! (Disney did not respond to an email seeking comment.) The Royal Lives clause is a contractual clause that dates back to 1692 Britain, and is most often used in the UK; in the states, it’s more often utilized as the Presidents’ Lives clause.

It’s most commonly seen in trusts as a way to avoid rules against perpetuities in common law. The “21 years later” timeline comes from the stipulation that legal documents transferring property ownership are void 21 years after the death of its primary recipient. The Royal Lives clause lets attorneys establish a window of time that would never expire....

https://www.indiewire.com/2023/03/disney-world-ron-desantis-royal-lives-clause-1234824230/

[jaxlongtimer]

Some have noted that DeSantis was quoted as saying he was ending the "corporate kingdom" so there is a humorous irony in tying the declarations to the British kingdom.  In national comments/forums, Disney's move is being portrayed as "Mickey Mouse outwits Goofy."   

Even on Fox News, comments are highlighting how foolish this makes DeSantis.  Trump is already all over it. LOL.

[jcjohnpaint]

Serves the asshole right. Or...he served himself right

[tufsu1]

how dare they do this during publicly-noticed Sunshine Law compliant meetings!

[Charles Hunter]

how dare they do this during publicly-noticed Sunshine Law compliant meetings!

A concept foreign to DeSantis and his drones, therefore the perfect way to "sneak" it through.

[jaxlongtimer]

Update:  Turns out Disney pulled another fast one on DeSantis.  The outgoing Reedy Creek board also approved an agreement with Disney that Disney could set its own utility rates through 2032.  LOL. 

Ron DeSantis loses again to Disney

Florida Republican Gov. DeSantis has been foiled by Disney once again.

The new board DeSantis appointed to oversee the company’s Orlando theme parks has discovered a new wrinkle in its plans. The board’s chairman said Wednesday that another “11th hour agreement” was signed before the board took over that allows Disney to set its own utility rates for its resorts through 2032. By that time, DeSantis, who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection in 2026, will be long gone....

https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/20/23691341/ron-desantis-disney-world-board-reedy-creek-florida

[jaxlongtimer]

Mark Woods remarks on silliness of DeSantis's war on Disney while the State has so many real issues to deal with.  So much for DeSantis caring about economic development and the welfare of Florida... obviously, not as important as his personal ambitions.  A real man of the people?

The state of Florida has plenty of serious problems. Disney isn’t one of them.

....It’s hard to even imagine what would be an equivalent in any other state.

Vermont’s governor versus maple syrup?

Wisconsin’s governor battling the state’s largest cheesemaker?

Michigan’s governor promising to take General Motors down a notch?...

....In 2009, before he first ran for public office, DeSantis got married at Disney World, exchanging vows with former Jacksonville TV journalist Casey Black in the wedding chapel of the Grand Floridian Resort....

....in his first couple of years as governor, DeSantis showed few signs of having qualms with anything Disney. To the contrary, he gladly took political donations from Disney and, among other things, supported an absurd exemption for the theme parks in a social media bill...

.... this clearly isn’t about running the state of Florida. Like so much that has happened in the past year, it’s about running for president of the United States....

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/mark-woods/2023/04/21/desantis-versus-disney-in-florida-is-a-battle-unlike-any-other/70134395007/

[jaxlongtimer]

Disney just fired another shot at DeSantis by suing him for political retaliation.  If Disney ties him up in depositions, he may not have time to run for president  .  Glad someone is holding DeSantis accountable for his dictatorial abuse of power.  Will be interesting to watch this case.

If not covered by this lawsuit, I expect a separate lawsuit against the new Reedy Creek board for trying to unilaterally void the actions of the prior board.  Wonder how that will play out too.

Walt Disney Co. sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, alleging the Republican governor has waged a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power” against the company.

The federal lawsuit alleges that a campaign to punish Disney over its political views was “orchestrated at every step” by DeSantis and now threatens the company’s business.

The move dramatically escalates the drawn-out feud between DeSantis, who is expected to become a top Republican contender for the 2024 presidential race, and Disney, which is among Florida’s largest employers.

The lawsuit was filed on the same day that a board of supervisors, picked by DeSantis to oversee Walt Disney World’s operations, moved to undo a development deal that it says Disney struck to thwart its power.

The panel unanimously voted to declare “void and unenforceable” that development deal, which was approved shortly before DeSantis replaced the Disney-approved board with his preferred supervisors.

The lawsuit called that action the “latest strike,” saying the development contracts “laid the foundation for billions of Disney’s investment dollars and thousands of jobs.”

“The government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional,” Disney alleged in the civil complaint in U.S. District Court in northern Florida.

The board also voted for a resolution to effectively ban Disney’s Orlando-area parks from imposing future coronavirus-related restrictions.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/26/disney-sues-florida-gov-ron-desantis-alleges-political-effort-to-hurt-its-business.html

[thelakelander]

LOL at these headline titles:

CNN:

Disney sues DeSantis and oversight board
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/26/politics/disney-desantis-reedy-creek-power/index.html

FOX News:

Disney takes DeSantis to court over revocation of special privileges in very public feud
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/disney-sues-florida-gov-ron-desantis-loss-special-district

[Lunican]

Is this really a winning strategy for DeSantis? Disney's special district isn't in the top 100 problems in Florida, is it? Seems clearly retaliatory and a first amendment violation.

DeSantis loves to say Disney is "defying the will of the people of Florida" but I don't remember this being voted on. It's literally just his personal vendetta.

[Lunican]

Whispers are growing louder among Republicans that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has miscalculated in his battle with Disney — a struggle that has already gone on for more than a year and has no end in sight.

There are real dangers, they say, of his fight with the corporation becoming a distraction from his likely presidential campaign — and one that could make him seem petty and vindictive rather than strong or decisive.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3976584-the-memo-republicans-worry-desantis-has-erred-in-disney-feud/