On Wednesday, Florida’s new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) board held a lengthy meeting. Much of the meeting consisted of the typical agenda items that characterize meetings like these, but the board discussed the unconstitutional shenanigans that the outgoing Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) board engaged in and talked about the new board’s vision for the district.
Board Chairman Martin Garcia began by recounting the situation with the RCID board and Disney’s efforts to hold onto its power over the governance of the district. He noted that the new board wanted to work with Disney, not against it:
Before we learned about Disney’s illegal, eleventh-hour agreements, our board was genuinely looking forward to working with Disney in a productive and collaborative manner to improve the functioning of the district. In this spirit, before we were formally appointed, our board members met with Disney’s Vice President of External Affairs to launch what we hoped would be a mutually beneficial relationship.
Unfortunately, we were unaware that Disney had no intention of abiding by the new legislation. Weeks earlier, it leapt to subvert the will of the people of Florida by creating illegal agreements.
Again, our board truly wished to work with Disney. Instead, the corporation decided that compromise was out of the question. It was Disney’s way or the highway. This is why we were forced to hire litigation counsel.
Garcia asserted that the new board’s charge is to make the district better.
Related: A ‘Caper Worthy of Scrooge McDuck’: Behind Disney’s Reedy Creek Maneuvers
“It is indisputable that the district requires meaningful changes on a variety of fronts,” he said. “Indeed, the new board’s charge from Governor DeSantis and the Florida legislature is to ensure that the district is finally positioned to be more equitable and prosperous, and, thus, to better serve the citizens of Florida, particularly those living in Orange and Osceola counties.”
And the CFTOD board has an aggressive and innovative agenda where “nothing is off the table.” The board is looking at exploring items like:
Creating new zoning to develop affordable and work-force housing
Creating voting rights for future residents of the district
Developing better traffic solutions for the surrounding counties
Reducing the carbon footprint created by the district
Aligning the district’s interests to join Orange and Osceola counties to fight the many lawsuits Disney has filed to avoid paying its ad valorem taxes
Joining the counties’ efforts to create more funding for public schools in Central Florida
Regulating Disney like every other business in Central Florida
Charging utility rates that are not controlled by Disney
Providing more transparency to the district’s governance
Implementing new accounting standards
Establishing an independent government that is not exclusively controlled by Disney
Increasing the district’s revenues to provide new and improved government services
Evaluating how we can monetize some of the assets of the district to pay off debt
Providing the governor and the legislature with a report before the next legislative session so that they can make long-term legislative changes to the district to better serve the public good
Some of these items may be pipe dreams, while others are reasonable and responsible ideas. If the CFTOD board can accomplish half of these things, it will have done more than the RCID board has done in years — unless you count blindly serving Disney’s interests.
Disney used to be innovative, and the early days of RCID when it served its original purpose reflected that fact. It’s time for innovation again, and hopefully, the CFTOD board will usher in a new era for the region.
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