(Headline USA) Disney for the second time attempted to forestall a state court case involving its legal battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis’s appointees over who controls Walt Disney World’s governing district.
The company accused the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (formerly the Reedy Creek Improvement District) and the governor’s office of stonewalling requests for documents that were part of the litigation.
The Republican governor, who withdrew on Sunday from the GOP presidential race, dialed back Disney’s longstanding special-use permits last year, with help from the GOP-led legislature, after the woke company dove headlong into a political battle over school indoctrination and parental rights related to the promotion of controversial classroom topics, specifically the LGBT agenda.
Disney publicly opposed the state’s anti-grooming law, which bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, when sexuality is not an essential part of child development and is viewed by many as an inappropriate topic to broach with youngsters.
The entertainment giant’s request came as a district employee said in a deposition that the takeover of the district’s board by DeSantis’s appointees last year had caused around 50 of its 370 employees to leave. The board has a scheduled monthly meeting Wednesday.
“There is a very, very, very politically motivated board, and I know we try not to acknowledge that, but that is a huge reason why a lot of people are leaving,” Erin O’Donnell, the district’s public records administrator, said in a deposition, sections of which were filed in court last week. “Other people may have had their own issues with leadership … but a lot of people have left just due to the entire shakeup of the district.”
The governing district provides municipal services such as planning, mosquito control and firefighting in the roughly 40 square miles in central Florida that make up Disney World.
Disney, DeSantis and the district have taken their fight over who controls the district to state and federal courts.
In its request for a delay, Disney claimed that it needed another six months to prepare for filing a motion since it hasn’t gotten the documents in a timely manner.
The district said in court papers that it had provided the appropriate documents. It accused Disney of going on “a fishing expedition to score political points” and “accusing the district of misbehavior when there is none.”
Disney’s motion will argue against a request by the district for the judge in the state case to make an immediate ruling without the need for a full-blown trial. The judge previously granted a delay last year at Disney’s request for the same reason.
In court papers, Disney said DeSantis’s office hadn’t produced a single requested document and “relied on excuses that are as inconsistent as they are unbelievable.”
Nick Meros, an attorney for the governor’s office, said Tuesday that his office doesn’t comment on pending litigation. In an email to Disney attorneys, filed in court papers, he said Disney’s requests were “broad and unwieldy.”
O’Donnell’s testimony provides insight into the turmoil since the takeover of the district, which previously was controlled by Disney supporters. The departure of longtime senior leaders has hampered day-to-day operations, and morale has taken a hit, she said.
Some procedures that had been ad hoc have been formalized by the new leadership, she added, but the attention given to the shakeup and the backgrounds of the DeSantis appointees have been distracting.
Among those appointees is Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of the conservative activist group Moms for Liberty who has been accused of hypocrisy after admitting to a sexual relationship she and her husband had with another woman.
Last week Sarasota police cleared her husband, Christian Ziegler, of rape allegations involving the woman but said they asked prosecutors to charge him with illegally recording video of the sexual encounter he had with her. Earlier this month the Republican Party of Florida ousted Christian Ziegler as chairman of the state party.
“It’s just very hard to go through our day-to-days not hearing about all the extra news happening,” O’Donnell said. “So I think that just, in their own personal lives, and what they’ve done, or what affiliations they’re a part of, have just been extra noise, so to speak, at the district.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
