Independent Audit Blasts Disney For Pulling ‘Bait And Switch’ On Florida: ‘A Mousetrap’

[Christine]

Is there a copy of the audit available from an official website so that I don't have to give a terrible website like The Daily Caller any traffic?

Given the introduction posted here earlier and the fact that it's sponsored by the CFTOD board, I'm sure that the entire thing is ridiculous and nonsensical, but I'd like to read it, anyway.

There is a link within the article to it but I copied it here so you wanted have to go to that highly partisan site:
https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/CFTOD.pdf

 

[HokieRaven5]

There is a link within the article to it but I copied it here so you wanted have to go to that highly partisan site:
https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/CFTOD.pdf

Additionally if you wanted to find all 78 exhibits they are at least here:

https://www.oversightdistrict.org/meetings/cftod-board-of-supervisors-meeting/

 

[whiteness]

Is there a copy of the audit available from an official website so that I don't have to give a terrible website like The Daily Caller any traffic?

Given the introduction posted here earlier and the fact that it's sponsored by the CFTOD board, I'm sure that the entire thing is ridiculous and nonsensical, but I'd like to read it, anyway.

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/CFTOD.pdf

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

It’s very telling when people have to resort to criticizing a CFTOD board member (who I agree is hypocritical in her personal life but who has nothing to do with the old RCID or this report) instead of discussing the actual text of the audit.

At the end of the day, I’ll gladly just wait for the courts to sort all this out (lawsuits against Disney, the state of FL, RCID, CFTOD and whatever also is out there). Some people hate Desantis so much that they could care less what wrongdoing Disney may or may not have done. And some people think that some of Disney’s statements and actions are so egregious that they will take any statement against them as 100% true and unbiased. I‘m old enough to know that the truth will lie somewhere in the middle, that no entity in this has totally clean hands, and that the only people to truly suffer ramifications are never going to be the ones that deserve it.

Nothing to do with the report? Their mitts and hers are all over this report. They are the ones that picked the so-called independent auditor(s). Their Ferrari of independent audits, once you look under the hood, has a Yugo engine in it. Donald Kochen whom the board claimed is an esteemed law professor is indeed a law professor. But they left out some key info.
He's at the Antonin Scalia school of law and a frequent contributor to the Federalist society,
That's the same Federalist society that is a mouthpiece for Moms for Liberty.
That's not a truly independent auditor. That's a cherry picked hack who darn well knew they wanted a hit piece and gave it to them. There is a ton of bias and slant in this hit piece. But to make matters worse, it goes far beyond just that. Again, any report that claims the agreement with Disney was disasterous for the surrounding communities of central Florida has drifted beyond slanted hit piece into an absurd disconnect from reality. And not only did she and the cronies have a hand in it, their other hand is in the cookie jar at the same time.

By the way, the truth doesn't always lie in the middle. If someone said the sky is blue and someone else said it's yellow would you take the position that the sky is green? If two kids tell on each other for eating the piece of blueberry pie you left out and one of them has a blue tongue and the other doesn't, do you take the middle position and punish them both? The truth isn't always in the middle. And there is no shining knight of middle ground that is going to ride in on a unicorn and magically hand us the perfect middle ground on everything.

Yep. Change Disney to Walmart and Florida to any blue state, and the attitudes and opinions of many would also change.

Walmart shakes down rural towns and cities for large sums of money, drives out the competition netting few jobs if any and no growth, and 30% of the time simply pulls out and then leaves the town high and dry without the services it once had. Did Disney leave central Florida high and dry? In fact they built 3 more theme parks, two water parks, several hotels, 5 golf courses, 4 mini golf courses, restaurants, a mall, an entertainment district, etc, etc. Had Disney left central Florida high and dry after extracting millions of dollars, my opinion would in fact change.

Sure. But so what?

The so what is that Florida got far more benefit out of Disney than anyone ever dreamed of and all it cost was to let Disney handle its own utilities district. But by all means if Florida wants to kill the goose that laid the golden egg over Disney being against banning and burning books.....

 

[Kwami]

There is a link within the article to it but I copied it here so you wanted have to go to that highly partisan site:
https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/CFTOD.pdf

Thanks!

I made it through the Introduction and Executive Summary before giving up. As expected, it's mostly just political nonsense disguised as an audit.

The only potentially legitimate complaint that I saw in the summary is that Disney used to provide RCID employees with too many perks. Honestly, that's something that we should probably do something about nationwide. Many large companies (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Disney) provide their employees with ridiculous levels of untaxed benefits.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

The so what is that Florida got far more benefit out of Disney than anyone ever dreamed of and all it cost was to let Disney handle its own utilities district.

According to the audit it cost more than that, but since it wasn’t written by a source you approve of I guess you can ignore that information.

But by all means if Florida wants to kill the goose that laid the golden egg over Disney being against banning and burning books..

That’s not what the problem was.

 

[sam_gordon]

That’s not what the problem was.

Wasn't it that Disney leaders gave their opinion of the "Dont Say Gay" bill?

 

[Kwami]

Wasn't it that Disney leaders gave their opinion of the "Dont Say Gay" bill?

Shh. It's totally unrelated. Totally. Obviously. Definitely, totally, obviously unrelated. Nobody ever related these two things or wrote about them in a book. Ever.

 

[whiteness]

Thanks!

I made it through the Introduction and Executive Summary before giving up. As expected, it's mostly just political nonsense disguised as an audit.

The only potentially legitimate complaint that I saw in the summary is that Disney used to provide RCID employees with too many perks. Honestly, that's something that we should probably do something about nationwide. Many large companies (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Disney) provide their employees with ridiculous levels of untaxed benefits.

OK, but to be clear, private for profit companies are free to lavish employees with whatever benefits they want. Public, government or non-profit entities shouldn't do that. And, in some cases, it's illegal.

Also, there's apparently some other stuff in there that, if you are a policy wonk or whatever, looks bad and is maybe illegal. I'm not and I'm not qualified to understand or judge it, so I rely on other people that claim to be to explain it. That's why I would love to see someone "pro-Disney" give a full analysis so I get both sides.

Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to get any information about this free of spin. Almost every single person that writes or talks about this subject has already picked a side and their interpretation is colored by that. It is such a loaded, emotional subject and it's tied up with so many seemingly unrelated cultural and political issues that people feel very strongly about.

At the end of the day, this should be a totally factual, legal issue: did Disney break any laws or cause others to break any laws on their behalf? It should be possible to discuss that question rationally and dispassionately without bring up an entire universe of hurt feelings, anger and desire for revenge and retribution for imagined past and future wrongs that have nothing, really, to do with that. But most otherwise intelligent, rational people find that incredibly hard to do and, besides, they feel that they don't have to and don't want to do it. They feel justified in bringing up personalities, past wrongs, social injustices and on and on...it's all very interesting from a sociological standpoint, but I'd rather just talk about the law and not all of the other stuff...

I fully expect that most people will not agree with my viewpoint, but that's OK. I just have to be honest even if I'm not liked for it.

 

[adkkev]

OK, but to be clear, private for profit companies are free to lavish employees with whatever benefits they want. Public, government or non-profit entities shouldn't do that. And, in some cases, it's illegal.

Totally off the topic of this thread, but what exactly do you mean when you say that “public, government, or non-profit entities shouldn’t do that“? That such employees shouldn’t receive any benefits? Like sick days, vacation days, health insurance, etc.? Or overtime?

 

[whiteness]

Totally off the topic of this thread, but what exactly do you mean when you say that “public, government, or non-profit entities shouldn’t do that“? That such employees shouldn’t receive any benefits? Like sick days, vacation days, health insurance, etc.? Or overtime?

No, they shouldn't receive "lavish" benefits. I'm not qualified to define what "lavish" means in this context, but there are probably legal and policy definitions of it where applicable.

 

[robinb]

If the Villages isn't stopped soon, the entire state of Florida will be turned into golf courses, tennis courts and speakers playing Jimmy Buffett music 24/7! /s

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

 

[Smugpugmug]

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

A few months ago I was having a drink at a square in the Villages (family members live there and was visiting) and no joke, on the stereo they played Margaritaville 3 times in a row. I almost asked the bartender if he gave me an extra shot of liquor that was making me imagine that.

 

[john7994]

A few months ago I was having a drink at a square in the Villages (family members live there and was visiting) and no joke, on the stereo they played Margaritaville 3 times in a row. I almost asked the bartender if he gave me an extra shot of liquor that was making me imagine that.

But did they line dance to it three times in a row?

 

[Smugpugmug]

But did they line dance to it three times in a row?

That honor goes to Cupid Shuffle.

 

[john7994]

That honor goes to Cupid Shuffle.

So should have called it ... I knew it!

 

[Kwami]

OK, but to be clear, private for profit companies are free to lavish employees with whatever benefits they want. Public, government or non-profit entities shouldn't do that. And, in some cases, it's illegal.

To be clear, you're incorrect. Companies can provide whatever benefits they want to, but many of those benefits are taxable. For example, my company provides tuition assistance above what the government allows tax free. If I use that benefit, then I have to pay taxes on the additional tuition assistance. My company provides free short- and long-term disability insurance, but again, I have to pay taxes on this benefit. In most cases, extra benefits that aren't exempt by law are taxable, regardless of whether the company is "private" or otherwise.

At the end of the day, this should be a totally factual, legal issue: did Disney break any laws or cause others to break any laws on their behalf? It should be possible to discuss that question rationally and dispassionately without bring up an entire universe of hurt feelings, anger and desire for revenge and retribution for imagined past and future wrongs that have nothing, really, to do with that. But most otherwise intelligent, rational people find that incredibly hard to do and, besides, they feel that they don't have to and don't want to do it. They feel justified in bringing up personalities, past wrongs, social injustices and on and on...it's all very interesting from a sociological standpoint, but I'd rather just talk about the law and not all of the other stuff...

You're right, it should be possible to determine if Disney violated any laws and to deal with the consequences of that without involving politics, culture wars, and hurt feelings. Unfortunately, this audit does not do that. It doesn't even kind of do that. It's full of political junk and its purpose is to back up CFTOD and DeSantis in court.

We had a thread going a while ago about the federal Disney vs. DeSantis & CFTOD case and I tried really hard to keep the thread focused on the law and the court case, but it was impossible. There are a few folks around here who make a point of ruining every thread by mentioning things that they know will provoke political responses and get the thread locked.

 

[bcla]

To be clear, you're incorrect. Companies can provide whatever benefits they want to, but many of those benefits are taxable. For example, my company provides tuition assistance above what the government allows tax free. If I use that benefit, then I have to pay taxes on the additional tuition assistance. My company provides free short- and long-term disability insurance, but again, I have to pay taxes on this benefit. In most cases, extra benefits that aren't exempt by law are taxable, regardless of whether the company is "private" or otherwise.

I've been mostly trying to stay out of this because the "signal to noise ratio" has been rather low. However, benefits provided to public workers are not illegal as long as they're transparent and employees accept them as taxable benefits. It's my understanding that Reedy Creek Improvement District employees got passes to WDW paid for with district funds. As far as I can tell, these benefits were approved in public votes and their budget items were listed in public budgets. And for the most part the only taxpayer was the Walt Disney Company, which ostensibly was OK.

I've heard of public workers getting certain benefits paid such as gym memberships, especially if the public employer could get a good group rate. I don't see a problem with it. It's just another benefit.

Reminds me of the time the LA Chief of Police was accused (by local pols) of accepting benefits from casinos in Las Vegas on the premise of some weird claim that it was a quid pro quo, even though he had no power over them. The really crazy thing was that they were either willfully ignorant or had no clue how casinos tracked play and awarded comps.

 

[whiteness]

To be clear, you're incorrect. Companies can provide whatever benefits they want to, but many of those benefits are taxable.

Some benefits are taxable and some aren't. If a company doesn't follow the law, they should be prosecuted. What's your point?

 

[bcla]

Some benefits are taxable and some aren't. If a company doesn't follow the law, they should be prosecuted. What's your point?

You're bringing up illegality. I don't see where there's been any illegality other than the say so of a party that isn't terribly trustworthy nor neutral. There's been well known animosity in the removal of RCID and the formation of a new district and board.