It’s been about eight months since Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that transformed the special district that contains Walt Disney World from the Reedy Creek Improvement District into the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. A legal battle between Disney World, DeSantis, and the district, would follow the decision, and multiple lawsuits are now under consideration. One group caught in the middle is the district’s employees, who say that since the transition, the “workplace culture has been destroyed” inside the location.
While the CFTOD encompasses all of Walt Disney World, the district itself has its own services and its own employees that run those services. However, it’s been recently reported that since the transition, a lot of Reedy Creek employees have left, resulting in both a lack of staffing and a major loss of institutional knowledge. ABC recently posted comments made by some of those leaving, which come directly from employee exit surveys, and they paint a grim picture. A former facilities manager states:
When I first joined the District, I found an organization that strived to be the very best at serving our community, sought the very best employees and valued those employees above all else. I find myself leaving a completely different District. A District that prioritizes politics above all else and will gladly sacrifice its employees, its community and its work if there’s an opportunity to score political points.
As part of the transition that came about via the new legislation, the former RCID board, which was made up of residents of the district who were placed in that position by Disney, was replaced by a group handpicked by Governor DeSantis. The new board includes people who are ideologically aligned with DeSantis as well as many who have contributed to his gubernatorial campaigns.
Initially, some employees within the district, specifically firefighters who had been involved in a difficult new contract negotiation with Reedy Creek, welcomed the new one. However, we’ve seen that at least some of them have become frustrated by the state of affairs. The CFTOD recently removed Walt Disney World annual passes as an employee benefit, after DW sent the district the bill for services rendered.
An accountant who tendered her resignation with the district specifically stated that she did not want to leave, but believed that she no longer had any choice, saying:
You now see fake smiles and I am sure that a lot of employees are somewhat scared to say what they actually feel because of retaliation.
The loss of employees is significant because even if Disney World is successful in its state and federal lawsuits against Ron DeSantis and the CFTOD, those employees are likely not coming back. So whoever ends up in charge will have significant rebuilding to do.
