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Credit: Inside the MagicDuring yesterday’s board meeting, a former Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) spoke up against the current board formed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Despite claiming that he’s done with them to make himself more palatable to voters as a Republican presidential candidate, the relationship between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company remains contentious. The two sides have been going at each other since Disney spoke out against his Parental Rights in Education law, AKA “Don’t Say Gay.”
While he has been less outspoken on the subject, Governor DeSantis still keeps a presence around Walt Disney World Resort through the committee he appointed to run the CFTOD. Since then, the new board has sought to make the district more regulated and financially stable. Unfortunately, it has proposed to do this by cutting benefits for current and retired staff members who were counting on them, including law enforcement and the fire department. And these employees are sick of it.
Reedy Creek Stands Up to DeSantis-Appointed Board But to No Avail
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During a recent board meeting, the members of the DeSantis-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight Committee (CFTOC) read a statement referring to the former Reedy Creek Improvement District Committee as “one of the greatest examples of corporate cronyism in modern American history.” However, not everyone agreed with this sentiment.
A former employee, Jeff Holland, stepped forward early into the meeting with a prepared statement addressing the benefits the new committee had stripped from him. During this statement, the retiree stood up for the past Disney-led committee, highlighting how the district valued its current and former employees.
“Mr. Chair Garcia, respectfully, your board has missed a key point. The previous district was committed to supporting staff and retirees, not just the union side, but equally non-union workers like myself. They saw the value in giving a little extra in retiree benefits and perks and how it retained quality workers.”
After thanking Holland for his 35 years of service, the Chair of the Board, Martin Garcia, shared some comments on the matter. “Unless you heard something I haven’t heard, we haven’t come to any decisions on what we’re going to do in terms of how to deal with the fact that the employees and the retirees are no longer getting passes.”
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Garcia continued, “The only decision that’s been made, okay, by this board is that the passes will be discontinued. And we don’t want… because there was a bad practice and a bad policy, in our opinion, okay, of that policy, we’re going to continue it. But we don’t want that to punish any of the employees.”
Currently, the plan is to provide employees with a stipend of $1425. However, Garcia stated in this meeting that if that’s not enough, they’ll bump that up. That being said, it seems unlikely that they will actually do that.
What This Means for Reedy Creek Employees
While this sounds like a positive message from Martin Garcia on behalf of the board, current and former employees seem to be wary. This is because the committee has gone back on its word in the past. After promising to work with the Reedy Creek Fire Department, the committee quickly began making cuts at management and their benefits.
Reedy Creek firefighter Pete Simon spoke against this during the August 23 board meeting, saying, “We were promised this new administration was going to make this place better… All we’ve seen and heard are cuts. Cuts to budget. Cuts to possible staffing. Cuts to maintenance, and now cuts to benefits.”
"We were promised this new administration was going to make this place better…. All we've seen and heard are cuts. Cuts to budget. Cuts to possible staffing. Cuts to maintenance, and now cuts to benefits." – Firefighter Pete Simon during the CFTOD board meeting. pic.twitter.com/BSQUJ6CtLU
— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) August 23, 2023
Related: Florida Residents Criticize DeSantis, Disney, and Retirement
On top of this, the potential $1425 stipend per employee is less than what Disney was giving the Reedy Creek staff before. For example, Jeff Holland was promised at least five passes to Disney World when he retired. Even at the lowest level, that is worth much more than $1400.
The CFTOD Committee was supposed to make the district more regulated and run smoothly. Instead, it has ruined the trust of everyone they are meant to help. And that’s certainly a bad look for republican candidate DeSantis.
Do you think the CFTOD Committee should be removing these perks from its current and former employees? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!