Gabrielle RussonNovember 22, 20235min
- Central Florida Tourism Oversight District
- Disney
- disney world
- Glen Gilzean
- RCID
- Reedy Creek
- Ron DeSantis
- walt disney world
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Eryka Washington Perry and three others lost their jobs at Disney World's government this week.
Four employees – including the Communications Director and a human resources executive – were dismissed this week before the holidays at Disney World’s government in the aftermath of the state’s takeover.
Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis took over the government board that provides the roads and handles other infrastructure needs for 25,000 acres of mostly Walt Disney World-owned property. Previously, the board had been controlled by Disney.
The DeSantis-run board hired new district administrator Glen Gilzeanin May.
Since then, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District – previously known as Reedy Creek – said it was undergoing a reorganization and dismissed: Communications Director Eryka Washington Perry, Chief Human Resources officer Jason Middleton, human resources administrative assistant Sherri DeSorcy and facilities maintenance specialist Rodney Moore.
Washington Perry is a former TV news reporter who previously been a public information officer for then- Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala until she was hired at the district in 2019 by former district administrator John Classe who is also gone, the Orlando Sentinel recently reported.
Florida Politics could not immediately reach Washington Perry, Moore, or Middleton for comment Tuesday. DeSorcy said she had not been given any reason for her termination.
The employees’ departures comes amid a report by Seeking Rents that more than 30 district employees quit after DeSantis took it over. On their way out, some employees complained of low morale and a toxic environment with bad leadership.
Gilzean argued at last week’s board meeting morale has improved as he touted his open door policy and employees getting an extra day off for Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day becoming an official district holiday.
The state’s fight with Disney World made national headlines which was the first introduction to some people that Disney World even had its own government in the first place. Thanks to a state law in 1967, lawmakers established the district to entice the man Walt Disney to build his Magic Kingdom in Orlando.
For decades, the district built roads, handled its own coding, ran a fire department and performed other duties a county government normally would, giving Disney World its own freedom to operate without having to deal with outside municipal governments.
The relationship between the state of Florida and Disney soured in recent months and led to a pair of lawsuits after the theme park operator criticized Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation, known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Disney then accused DeSantis and Republicans of targeting the company for speaking out and exercising its constitutional right to freedom of speech. Republicans passed a law this year giving DeSantis the power to appoint new members onto the Reedy Creek Board of Supervisors and allowing state inspectors onto the monorail.
Meanwhile, Republicans argued the Mouse needed more state more oversight and an independent board. The DeSantis-appointed members also have accused Disney of trying to strip away its power by making deals with the outgoing board members weeks before the state took it over.
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Gabrielle Russon
Gabrielle Russon is an award-winning journalist based in Orlando. She covered the business of theme parks for the Orlando Sentinel. Her previous newspaper stops include the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Toledo Blade, Kalamazoo Gazette and Elkhart Truth as well as an internship covering the nation’s capital for the Chicago Tribune. For fun, she runs marathons. She gets her training from chasing a toddler around. Contact her at [emailprotected] or on Twitter@GabrielleRusson.
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15 comments
Cheesy Floridian
November 21, 2023 at 9:49 pm
Hm seems fishy to me
Julia
November 22, 2023 at 5:53 pm
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Earl Pitts American
November 23, 2023 at 9:03 am
Good morn ‘ting America,
This whole Disney narrative is very important to our host. So as a Thanksgiving gift to our beloved host I, Earl Pitts American, am asking that we Patriots just allow the left to have their moment here and not post anything contrary to the leftist Disney narrative.
😊 Thanksgiving,
EPAEarl Pitts American
November 23, 2023 at 10:19 am
Great News America,
The above post was made under duress as I was being held against my will in a vast network of strategic tunnels deep below the M. Kingdom. They were preparing to waterboard me when all of a sudden that Small World song came thru on the intercom. My captors all went into some type of trance and shuffled away down the dark and dank network of tunnels.
Sensing my opportunity I grabbed my cell phone off the table and made my escape.
I’m now making my way thru the Florida swamps to Universal where I have friends who will smuggle me out of Orlando. I’m just catching my breath for a moment while sending this message out to the fan club as I just fought 2 gators and a raccoon who tried to slow down my escape to freedom.
EPA
Father David Patterson
November 22, 2023 at 10:50 am
Ron DeSantis is a fascist in league with Satan. I pray he has a stroke.
In Jesus name. Amen.Annette Holland
November 23, 2023 at 7:18 am
Amen.
My Take
November 22, 2023 at 11:29 am
DeSSgustus has a lot more options for the roads and lands around the theme park, and he is just the disgusting little toad (and let us emphasize “little”) to take petty advantage of them.
Potholes.
Detours, including dirt rosds.
Scores of billboards and 100s of small signs for shabby and tacky products and services. Every wooden pole covered with notices.
Official signs: STAY IN CAR. RABIES REPORT AREA
Litter, everywhere.
Roadside panhandlers, èspecially at intersections, with small hand-held signs.
Lots of cop cars with blue flashing lights.
And if you wanted to hire actors, as in the theme park:
Hookers, sashaying, many grotesque, some dressed as Tinkerbell.
Dangerous thugs, in handcuffs, mad and yelling, with police. Maybe some being (pretend) savagely clubbed by the actor police.
.
That’s how you treat a major employer who merely disagrees with you.Florida Citizen
November 22, 2023 at 9:30 pm
DeSantis is just a power hungry mad man all the people that are in his cabinet are so scared of him because thwy know if they don’t say yes to him and agree with him they are out of a job within an hour.
He must have something really disgusting in his closet. People are starting to see this in him and distancing them selves from him.My Take
November 23, 2023 at 10:17 am
Months ago I read that a number of DeSSantis’s former staff who outright hated him had gone to work for Trump. They said they knew what DeS was very sensitive about and were looking forward to using it against him.
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