Originally published May 9, 2011
It's not quite white smoke rising from St. Peter's Basilica, but Florida's most mysterious election process is unfolding this month at, of all places, Walt Disney World.
About two weeks from now, Disney will formally nominate a new candidate for a seat on the board of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the obscure government that oversees the giant resort's 25,000 acres in Central Florida.
The assignment comes with what may very well be the greatest perk of any elected office in the state: a piece of the Magic Kingdom itself. Because board members must also be landowners in Reedy Creek, Disney awards them 5 acres of its property -- albeit on inaccessible, undevelopable tracts of land.
Disney has already settled on its chosen candidate, and it is someone the company knows very well: Thomas M. Moses was Reedy Creek's second chief executive and spent three decades as its district administrator -- the equivalent of city manager -- until his retirement in 2001.
But Reedy Creek is technically a democracy, so an election must be conducted later this month. Just don't expect to stay up late waiting for returns: Reedy Creek board elections are decided by district landowners, who get one vote for each acre they own. And Disney owns two-thirds of the district's property -- about 17,000 acres.
The district's next-largest private landowner? Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts of Toronto, which has less than 300 acres.
"Tom Moses is an excellent nominee, given his experience at Reedy Creek, his knowledge of Walt Disney World Resort and the understanding he has of our community from his many years of living and working here in Central Florida," Disney World spokesman Bryan Malenius said.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District as it exists today was established in 1967 by the Florida Legislature at the request of Walt Disney himself, who said he needed a specialized, personalized government to help him covert 40 square miles of Central Florida swamp into an East Coast Disneyland and eventually -- or so Disney hoped at the time -- into a first-of-its kind, master-planned city.
It was the ultimate business incentive. Reedy Creek was granted most of the powers typically held by cities and counties in Florida, including the ability to write building codes, sell tax-free bonds, produce electricity, condemn property and kill mosquitoes.
Today, the district, which straddles the Orange-Osceola county line, collects more than $70 million a year in property taxes -- $9 of every $10 paid by Disney -- and has 587 direct and contract employees.
Overseeing it all is the five-member board of supervisors, which gathers once a month to conduct the district's business in a third-floor conference room inside Reedy Creek's glass, prism-shaped administrative building on Hotel Plaza Boulevard. Bagels and muffins are served at every meeting, along with coffee in paper Disney cups.
Openings on the board are rare. The newest member -- Winter Park lawyer Laurence C. Hames -- joined the board a decade ago. And he inherited his seat from his father, the late SunTrust banker Clifford M. Hames, who personally worked with the Disney brothers as they assembled their Florida land in the 1960s.
Read the rest of the story here.
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