LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA — The Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board announced Tuesday that it is abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and will immediately cease race-based hiring practices.
Glenton Gilzean, the newly appointed director of the special district that governs Walt Disney World, said the change reverses the former Reedy Creek Improvement District’s illegal policies.
“ILLEGAL AND SIMPLY UNAMERICAN”
“The so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were advanced during the tenure of the previous board and they were illegal and simply un-American,” Gilzean said.
“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal,” Gilzean added.
According to an internal investigation by the new oversight board, the former district board routinely awarded contracts and chose vendors based on race and gender.
Gender and racial quotas through “Minority/Women Business Enterprise and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise” programs were used by the previous board to “ensure diversity.” But the investigation revealed the district wasted millions of dollars by working only with businesses that fit those specific criteria.
The new governing board also claims that previous district supervisors threatened contractors who did not meet racial or gender requirements with nonpayment and disqualification from future project bidding.
Gilzean – a black leader and the former head of the Central Florida Urban League – told reporters that communities thrive when people work together despite their differences.
