The Disney Corporation’s miniature battle with the State of Florida took another twist late last week. Following on from the Disney reaction to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Parental Rights In Education Bill, termed the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” by those who opposed it, DeSantis responded by stripping the power of the Reedy Creek Development District.

This was an entity that had allowed Disney a high degree of control over its own activities in Florida. A hand-picked board was instead appointed to oversee Disney World’s governing and services.

Disney had made noises about taking the loss. They said they were “accepting the new reality”. Instead, the Walt Disney Co. quietly pushed through a pact and restrictive covenants that would tie the hands of future board members for decades, rendering the board powerless in decision-making around Disney.

The previous Reedy Creek Improvement District board, controlled by Disney, held a public meeting on February 8th and approved a change the day before Florida House voted to put the governor in charge.

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.”

The kicker is that it uses a legal instrument known as a Royal Lives Clause which means the agreement 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.”

This is currently 4-year-old Prince Louis Of Wales, the youngest son of Prince William and Kate Middleton. These restrictive covenants remain in place, then, potentially for around 90 years as of right now.

A development agreement built into the covenants allows Disney to build projects at the highest density and retain the right to sell or assign those development rights to other district landowners without the new board having any say.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s new Board of Supervisors has hired a heavyweight Washington DC legal firm to look over these covenants. According to board member Brian Aungst Jr.:

“We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it, it’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”

Disney defended its actions, reminding those involved that the decisions were taken under the power of the old Reedy Creek organization, before the new Board came to power, and that the meeting was public and legal. They said:

“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.”

Taryn Fenske, a DeSantis spokeswoman, said in a statement that these were:

“…last-ditch efforts [to transfer] rights and authorities from the district to Disney. An initial review suggests these agreements may have significant legal infirmities that would render the contracts void as a matter of law. We are pleased the new governor-appointed board retained multiple financial and legal firms to conduct audits and investigate Disney’s past behavior.”

Board member Ron Peri said:

“This essentially makes Disney the government. This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”

DeSantis himself referenced the ongoing battle when addressing a crowd in Smyrna, GA:

“There’s a lot of little back-and-forths going on now with the state taking control, but rest assured, you know, you ain’t seen nothing yet. There’s more to come in that regard.”

With his characteristic bombast, he continued:

“I don’t know that it’s the appropriate use of shareholder resources to be shilling for gender ideology in kindergarten, but nevertheless, that’s what they decided to do.

They basically got everything they wanted for the many decades they’ve been operating in Florida – until now, because now there’s a new sheriff in town.”

King Charles III has not been approached for a comment.

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