Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has made his recommendations for members of a state-controlled board district that will oversee the 25,000 acres of land surrounding Walt Disney World. His recommendations are still pending state Senate confirmation.
All five recommended members of the recently renamed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board are political allies of DeSantis. They have either donated to his campaign directly, vocally praised his policies, or donated to other Republican candidates in the state, according to Axios.
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“These are folks who have a variety of experience that I think all are pertinent,” DeSantis said last month. “This is ultimately a state agency that’s running this but a lot of the principles are the same in terms of how you manage that. We also have people that very much want to see Disney be what Walt envisioned, which is what we all want to do.”
Here is a look at the five unpaid board members, if they are approved by the Senate, and their background:
Martin Garcia
Garcia will serve as the chairman of the board and is an attorney from Tampa. He also owned and operated a successful private equity investment firm and served on the board of three New York Stock Exchange companies, DeSantis said.
His firm donated more than $50,000 to DeSantis’s reelection campaign in 2022, CNN reported.
Bridget Ziegler
The wife of Christian Ziegler, the new chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Bridget Ziegler has a background as a parent on multiple school boards. She currently serves on the Sarasota school board and is the director of school board programs at the Leadership Institute. She also co-founded the organization Moms for Liberty and is a proud supporter of the governor’s controversial education policies.
She has spent over a decade working in insurance, including working with two of the largest global risk and insurance brokerage firms, DeSantis said.
The Republican Party of Florida has donated $1.75 million to DeSantis.
Michael Sasso
Sasso has been on multiple boards and commissions for DeSantis, including the 9th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission. He is the managing partner of Sasso and Sasso, P.A., which specializes in election law, complex business, and construction litigation.
He has donated $370 to the DeSantis campaign and $400 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis Political Action Committee, according to Florida Politics.
Brian Aungst Jr.
Aungst is an attorney and the son of a former two-term Republican mayor of Clearwater, per Axios. He is an attorney and shareholder at the law firm of Macfarlane Ferguson and McMullen, P.A. He was previously the chairman of the Pinellas County Commission Redistricting Committee.
Some of Aungst’s professional success comes from the approval he received for hotels, condominiums, affordable housing developments, and the redevelopment of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium through his land use law practice, according to DeSantis. He is also DeSantis’s choice for a state judicial nominating commission.
Ron Peri
Peri is considered one of DeSantis’s more controversial appointees after making offensive comments about the LGBT community, including claiming that homosexuality is “evil.” Peri is a former pastor and is the chairman and CEO of the Christian outreach ministry the Gathering USA.
Peri has donated to multiple Republican candidates in the past, including former President Donald Trump. He has also donated to the Republican National Committee, according to Forbes.
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DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company have been engaged in a battle for nearly a year after the company came out strongly against the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act. DeSantis also signed a bill that revoked the Reedy Creek Improvement District’s special status that allowed it to operate municipal services on its own last year.
“The Reedy Creek Improvement District created and maintained the highest standards for the infrastructure for the Walt Disney World Resort,” Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro said in a statement.
“We are hopeful the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District will continue this excellent work,” he added, “and the new board will share our commitment to helping the local economy continue to flourish and support the ongoing growth of the resort and Florida’s tourism industry.”
