UPDATE: According to WESH 2 News, Glen Gilzean resigned from his position on the Florida Commission on Ethics in favor of keeping his job as the District Administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (formerly the Reedy Creek Improvement District).
There’s been a new development in the drama between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) board, and Disney.
Disney vs. DeSantis
The trio are already involved in a number of lawsuits, with Disney suing Gov. DeSantis (claiming the governor violated the company’s free speech rights) and the Board suing Disney because of agreements the company made with the previous Reedy Creek District board. The Board is now claiming that some perks Disney gave to previous Reedy Creek District employees are “unethical,” calling them a “scheme” that “raises significant questions regarding self-dealing.”
Officials with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (previously the Reedy Creek Improvement District — RCID) have made a referral to the inspector general, asking them to look into certain perks that Disney provided for Reedy Creek District employees.
According to the press release, “the former Disney-run RCID used taxpayer funds to provide season passes and amusement experiences to its employees and their family members, cover the cost of discounts on hotels, merchandise, food, and beverages, and give its own board members VIP Main Entrance passes. In 2022 alone, it cost taxpayers over $2.5 million.”
Reedy Creek Improvement District
The press release cites a bill sent to the CFTOD for the amount of $492,382.96 to cover “Q1 FY22 Tickets.” Specific discounts included “Merchandise Discount Usage” ($16,837.39), “Food & Beverage Discount Usage” ($4,969.52), “Water Parks Discount Usage” ($3,764.48), and “employee handouts for hotel usage at the Disney Yacht Club Resort, Disney Caribbean Beach Resort, and Disney Coronado Springs Resort.”
Disney’s Yacht Club
The board claims that this constitutes “unethical benefits and perks” and “raises significant questions regarding self-dealing as the board members were only permitted a maximum of $100 per month in compensation per the Reedy Creek Improvement District Act.”
The CFTOD plans to eliminate the perks: “Immediately upon discovering the scheme, the CFTOD set in motion plans to eliminate it.” Essentially, employees such as firefighters and other first responders for Walt Disney World are losing certain job perks.
Reedy Creek Building
Although the CFTOD has claimed that the perks were unethical, Richard Foglesong (a Rollins College professor emeritus) states that “the arrangement appears to be more like an employee benefit rather than a taxpayer scam, similar to the way professors at a university may get free passes to athletic events or free tuition for family member” (Fortune).
The Orlando Sentinel reports that CFTOD employees will “get a $1,000 annual stipend as part of the proposed changes to the district’s annual pass program.” Employees could use that money for theme park tickets, savings, emergencies such as car repairs, or any other needs.
Magic Kingdom Entrance
This isn’t the only ethics dilemma happening with the CFTOD currently. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Glen Gilzean, who is currently serving as Florida’s ethics commission chairman and the administrator of the CFTOD, might have to resign from one of his roles.
Steven Zuilkowski, the ethics commission’s general counsel, has stated that, according to state law, public employees are not permitted to serve on the government watchdog panel. “[I]t appears that your position as district administrator for the district is public employment,” Zuilkowski expressed in his statement.
©Orlando Sentinel | Glen Gilzean, left, and board member Ron Peri, right
It’s likely we’ll hear more about this issue during tomorrow’s CFTOD board meeting.
Stay tuned to DFB for more updates on all the latest Disney news.
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
By the time these two get to court, the NEW board isn’t going to have a leg to stand on. I hope with this new shot at Disney, they retaliate by releasing what PERKS the NEW board are getting.
Companies and organizations have always looked for excuses to remove and stop extra benefits for cost cutting measures. Whether these two groups are fighting or not, I’m not surprised that another organization wants to take away a perk. Either way it’s sad and this group isn’t the only one affected by the recent “right sizing” and cost cutting going on across the country.
Isn’t Disney THE tax payer in Reedy Creek?
DeSantis and his hooligans are desperately trying to justify his ego driven government overreach, and losing voters with every step.
I may be wrong, but weren’t those employees actual Disney employees when Disney controlled RCD? If so, the freebie’s were just like any other company perk be it Disney or any other company as well as governments. So what is the big deal? It seems like the new board is looking for and/or creating discrepancies out of spite.
Wait….What????? I thought these perks came out of the millions made in themes parks paid by we the people. Cast members deserve these perks.
and how long has Gilzean been on this board making 400,000 a YEAR ON FLORIDA TAXPAYERS???? Shouldn’t he be paying back some of that money? Just another example of why the common people are taxed to death while these undeserving persons in HIGH OFFICE make MILLIONS!!!!
Tax payer dollars? It is my understanding that Walt started the RCID (funded by Disney not taxpayers) so that the infrastructure for WDW’s fourty square miles was the sole responsibility of Disney therefore no tax dollars needed from the taxpayers of the two counties were WDW is located. Once this went political with Desantis I’m having a hard time believing the current news.
The money to the employee is essentially the same, and they can use it for other items if they don’t want to buy park tickets. Essentially they are now getting the cost of a pass in the form of a stipend, which they can use as they see fit. This seems like a benefit, not a takeaway.
The salary of 400K is being paid by the tax payers so ……
The Disney Employees and their families should be able to have this with all of the bad stuff and long hours and putting up with bad tourists, why take this away from them? Pretty soon we won’t have anyone working with Disney or who wants to work with the Happiest Place on Earth.
Considering how much a pass cost (top tier over $1000) per person in a family the “board” is giving each employee a whole $1000 for the year. I would call that a cut in pay. The tax dollar the “board” is using is the tax money raised from the owners of Disney property within the Disney resort area. Do they have any right to throw that around? Or are they using Orange and Osceola tax money that Disney property owner also pay?
Reedy Creek isn’t “Disney Employees”, they are supposed to be a separate governmental agency & treated as such.
This would be like any governmental board charging the tax payer for their vacations.
I’m pretty sure people would be mad about the misuse of funds in that case.
This title is misleading.
Is the reason you didn’t post my most recent comment because it was neutral and fact-based and therefore supporting of the actions of the CFTOD and not bashing DeSantis or Iger?
Disney payed for these perks no one else . They took over the board and employees are being punished by it. How sad. Even sadder is the fact that they are lying on why they are cutting it. I hope the madness stops soon for the sake of the employees.
Wow went from $1400 to $1000. A year. Gross. So they have to pay taxes on it! These are residents of Florida they’re taking these things away from. What’s next? The college program? They already said they’re also taking away team building “retreats” . Don’t a lot of companies do that? When they start quitting because all the “ perks” taking away, were they gonna work? The heat, the rain, all the idiot customers, the abuse they have to take and still remain smiling, how long that gonna last? They want to make Disney as miserable as the rest of that state. And he wants to be president? If that happens, expect a lot of your “perks” taken away as well! Like living the way you want, not the way he wants you or your children to obey him.
Hi Randy. No, I’m not here on the weekends so if you post on Friday it may very well take me until Monday to approve it because I read them all.
Thanks for posting my comments, DFB! A couple of corrections are in order here. Reedy Creek employees never were employees of Disney. Disney gifting AP’s to Reedy Creek employees was kind, but wrong. A company should not give large gifts to its regulator. It’s called a conflict of interest, a bribe, corruption, etc. The CFTOD was correct in stopping this from Disney, but CFTOD can provide these passes to its employees as a benefit if it wishes. CFTOD has elected to pay its employees $1000 to buy their own AP if they wish, which sounds fair to me. Lastly, yes, governments do tax us for government employee vacations. It falls under employee wages and benefits. These include the very generous benefits packages government workers receive at the state, local and federal government levels; far more generous than I ever received during my banking career, except I had the privilege of paying for them through property, income and sales taxes. Have a great day, friends.
No matter whose take we see, it’s a detriment to Disney employees and it’s deliberate. DeSatan and Company will attack Disney further as soon as Ronnie is destroyed in his futile bid for the presidency.
Didn’t the new district also just agree to a 10% raise for the firefighters?