The drama between Florida Govenor Ron DeSantis’ Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board and the Walt Disney Company will continue into 2024. Disney is now suing the CFTOD, alleging that the board is not delivering documentation after filing public records requests.
Orlando Sentinel reports that the newest lawsuit claims that “CFTOD has prevented Disney from discovering the actions of its government through public records requests, in violation of Florida law.” Disney hopes that the suit will result in a ruling from an Orlando County judge, which will force the board to release the documents.
The records request, which asks for various forms of communications from the CFTOD’s board members, was made on May 11, 2023. The request would hand over “text messages, voicemails, and other communications.”
Disney’s request may be for nothing because board members were not required to use government-issued devices or e-mail addresses for the job. This means no safety measures were in place to archive texts, e-mails, or voicemails.
Lawyers for the Walt Disney Company make a point that this type of record keeping isn’t up to snuff, “On the public records front, this has led to delays, inadequate preservation, storage and production of public records, and improper and unsupported claims of privilege and exemption from disclosure.”
The full context of the public records lawsuit can be read here. It was filed in the Ninth Judicial Circuit for Orange County, Florida.
It has been close to a year since DeSantis appointed a mostly politically friendly board to take the place of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Since then, Disney and the governor have been swatting back and forth at each other. The Mouse accused DeSantis of “constitutional mutiny,” while the Presidential hopeful claimed that the former Disney-friendly AHJ was full of bribes and cronyism.
What do you think of the back-and-forth legal squabbling? Let us know below.
[Source: Orlando Sentinel]
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