‘All the Facts Come From My Book,’ Author Accuses DeSantis’ Disney Board of Spending $360,000 on ‘Book Report’

Last week, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District released its report on the former Reedy Creek Improvement District, and the results were not great. The report ripped Disney World for buying influence with the former Reedy Creek Board in the form of season passes and discounts on merchandise, meals, and hotel rooms. The report called the relationship between Reedy Creek and Disney “the most egregious exhibition of corporate cronyism in modern American history.”

Related: New Report Accuses Disney of Buying Influence with Former Reedy Creek Board

When the report was released last week, the Board appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis left out some crucial information, including the gifts received by DeSantis and Florida Senator Rick Scott and the cost. According to a new report from the Orland Sentinel, the new Board spent $360,000 on the report, which included $110,000 to to Donald J. Kochan, a conservative law professor at Virginia’s George Mason University.

This report will now head to Florida Gov Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature, as is required by the law that stripped Disney World of the Reedy Creek District and replaced it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Governor DeSantis and the Legislature will use the report to consider further legislation for the new District.

But it appears as though the Board could have saved hundreds of thousands by simply purchasing a book on Amazon. Rollins College professor Richard Foglesong’s 2001 book “Married to the Mouse” appears to be the source of most of the facts from the report. Foglesong told the Orlando Sentinel that he doesn’t think this new report broke any new ground.

Fogleson said: 

So the new board pays someone from out of town $100,000 to write a book report on my book, ‘Married to the Mouse.’ All facts came from my book; the rest was superfluous. The review is fair but possibly not self-aware. Basically, he says that if a government doesn’t have a public to hold it accountable, it will resort to cronyism. That goes for CFTOD, too.

Fogleson’s book was credited as one of the sources for the report, but Kochan told the Sentinel that he used a variety of sources when creating the report. Kochan said:

Dr. Foglesong’s political science work was extremely useful in my own research, as were scholarly works of others; and where his own research was integrated parts of my report, it was very helpful to apply independent insights from … the law and economics literature to his analysis.

Besides Kochan, the District also hired experts to conduct a forensic audit, an urban planning report, a financial report, and a utility report. The Board said that bringing in these experts has helped with future planning and considerable financial savings for the District.

At the Board’s last meeting, District Administrator Glen Gilzean said that these cost-cutting measures have saved the District taxpayers $4.2 million. However, the Walt Disney World Resort pays 86 percent of the District’s taxes, so that money would, in theory, return to Walt Disney World. But Disney shouldn’t cash that check just yet. The District authorized $4.5 million for legal fees in its fight with the Walt Disney Company, so even with the savings, it still needs to find an additional $300,000.

Very few of the revelations in the report are new. We have reported for months that Disney World gave Reedy Creek employees discounts at the parks and season passes. When the new Board of DeSantis appointees realized employees were receiving these benefits, they set out to eliminate them. Reedy Creek employees passionately defended them as perks of working for the District. The perks were even extended to retired district employees. Instead of the season passes and discounts, the new Board voted to give each employee $3,000 a year, which does not cover the cost of a family season pass at Disney World.

Foglesong’s book tells the story of the founding of Disney World and the Reedy Creek Improvement District. In its original charter, Reedy Creek was meant to be a city of the future, but that never materialized, only in the form of EPCOT. The District was supposed to have residents to whom the Reedy Creek Board would be accountable. It never materialized, and Board members were Disney employees. That relationship is now being called into question by the CFTOD Board.

The Walt Disney Company and the CFTOD Board are embroiled in a lawsuit in State Court. Disney is accusing the Board of violating the Contracts Clause of the Constitution, while the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is seeking to have any deals Disney struck with the former Board found null and void.

We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.