Disney district goes to court

Lawyers seek to block DeSantis’ appointees from depositions in suit

Attorneys for the Walt Disney World governing district taken over last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis don’t want the governor’s appointees answering questions under oath as part of its state lawsuit against Disney.

Lawyers this week filed a motion that would stop the DeSantis-appointed board members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District from having to give videotaped depositions to Disney attorneys. Disney and the DeSantis appointees are fighting in state court over who controls the governing district for Disney World.

District attorneys cite the “apex doctrine,” which generally provides that high-level government officers shouldn’t be subject to depositions unless opposing parties have exhausted all other means of obtaining information. The doctrine is used in just a handful of U.S. states, including Florida.

“Disney cannot demonstrate that the individual board members have unique, personal knowledge that would be relevant to any of the claims, counterclaims or defenses in this action to overcome the apex doctrine,” district attorneys said in their motion. “Disney’s assaultstyle effort to depose all the board members is simply an improper form of harassment of these highlevel government officials.”

The motion includes statements from the board members who claim that being forced to give depositions would impede their ability to fulfill their duties and divert resources and attention away from overseeing the district.

Earlier this month, Disney gave notice of its intention to question under oath six current and past DeSantis-appointed board members for discovery, the process of gathering information for the case.

The entertainment giant has said previously that the district

has stymied its efforts to get documents and other information, and Disney filed a public records lawsuit against the district earlier this year, claiming the district’s response to its requests were “unreasonably delayed” and “woefully inadequate.”

Since the takeover last year, the district has faced an exodus of experienced staffers, with many in exit surveys complaining that the governing body has been politicized since the changeover. The district’s administrator Glen Gilzean left this month after DeSantis appointed him interim Orange County elections supervisor at half the $400,000 salary he was earning, and the district’s DeSantis-appointed board chairman departed the following week.

The district had been controlled by Disney supporters before last year’s takeover sparked by the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. It provides municipal services such as firefighting, planning and mosquito control, among other things, and was controlled by Disney supporters for most of its five decades.