A new special magistrate with the authority to impose $500 fines and even shut down rides for code breaches at Disney's theme parks was "weaponized" by the hand-picked Disney tax district oversight board that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed, according to a report in the press.
The Orlando Sentinel reported on Wednesday that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District appointed longtime DeSantis supporter Glen Gilzean to the newly established position of the administrator to manage the dismantled Reedy Creek tax district.
The board also unanimously decided to recruit new enforcement officers who will report to Gilzean and adopt a program for enforcing the law.
The publication states that any attractions in violation of the yet-to-be-determined standards might face fines of up to $500 each day.
According to the publication, Gilzean will also have "pretty awesome powers" to shut down rides at the Disney World parks in Orlando, which include Magic Kingdom and Epcot, if they are in violation of the unspecified code.
The coercive action comes as the legal spat between DeSantis and Disney heats up and as Disney CEO Bob Iger chastised the Republican governor for using the special district as a political football.
Following DeSantis' removal of Disney's special district designation earlier this year due to the company's resistance to the state's "Don't Say Gay" statute, the two parties have launched lawsuits and countersuits against one another.
"This is about one thing and one thing only: them retaliating against us," Iger said during a call with investors after Disney reported second-quarter earnings in line with Wall Street estimates Wednesday.
"Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, pay more taxes or not?"
Rick Foglesong, a Walt Disney World historian, said Disney has a lot to fear from the newly created position, New York Post reported.
"You'd think [Disney] would see a threat here," Foglesong, the author of "Married to the Mouse," told the Sentinel.
With a starting salary of $400,000, Gilzean, the former CEO and president of the Central Florida Urban League, will represent the state in the Disney lawsuit against the new district.
Gilzean was previously selected by DeSantis to lead the Re-Open Florida Task Force and serve as chair of the Florida Commission on Ethics.
"Our new administrator can plan on being a defendant in a lawsuit," board Chair Martin Garcia told the Sentinel.
"And it's always challenging to recruit someone to a job and saying the first day, there's going to be a process server coming down the sidewalk that's probably going to serve you with a federal lawsuit."
Disney stepped up its legal campaign against DeSantis on Monday after the Republican governor approved legislation nullifying the company's last-ditch attempt to abolish the oversight panel made up of his handpicked representatives.
The state's attempt to exert more control over the 27,000-acre park's monorail system was also included in the updated lawsuit, but this is only the most recent development in the conflict between Disney and DeSantis.
The most recent dispute between Disney and DeSantis started in April when Disney lodged a first complaint against DeSantis in the federal court in Tallahassee.
Disney said in the lawsuit that it was against a provision that would have prohibited kindergarten through fourth-grade teachers from teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation.
Previously, DeSantis claimed that the content wasn't suitable for small children.
In an effort to lessen Disney's quasi-governmental influence as Florida's largest employer, the governor later fired members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board, which manages Disney's special tax district. Political supporters of DeSantis were brought in to replace the fired employees.
The departing board members didn't give up though, and they made a quiet attempt to regain control by passing a restrictive development agreement right before the transition of control.
When DeSantis realized his new oversight board was rendered powerless, he cracked down and voided the action.
The governor allegedly attacked Disney in "a clear case of retaliation" that began with what detractors refer to as the "Don't Say Gay" legislation, according to a federal lawsuit filed by Disney.
"There is no room for disagreement about what happened here: Disney expressed its opinion on state legislation and was then punished by the State for doing so," the company claims in its lawsuit.
The corporation also claimed that DeSantis unjustly singled it out in order to reinforce his culture war credentials ahead of his presumptive run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
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