You’ve heard it said before that some individuals should “learn to code” after they lose their job. Now that Disney World has picked up new oversight, it seems it is they who will be learning all about said code.
The following article is a joint effort of LW Ghost, WDW Pro and an unnamed expert in the matter.
At the recent press event put on by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the CFTOD District folks at the former HQ of the Reedy Creek Improvement District (the Disney-corrupted managing government of the entire Walt Disney World property since 1968), many major things were shared. I point you to my article covering the details here on TPP. But one little part of the disclosures has had me thinking ever since, and I’d like to ask that you indulge this semi-deep dive into the wonderful world of “Code Enforcement” and see what you think.
“Code Enforcement” is the process whereby rules and regulations for such things as the construction of roads, buildings, facilities and other stuff that people use are kept open, honest, and aboveboard. The government—city, county, state, federal, whoever—writes these laws to make sure we’re all safe, make sure things don’t collapse or otherwise fail to great injury and expense, and generally keep the playing field level for all involved in building and using our world. This leads to the necessity of having a process in which, if, let’s say, an electrician is found to have wired your home renovation poorly, unsafely, and not up to code and is fined and forced to make repairs by the government, that contractor has what is a virtual “court” to defend themselves and refute the claims. These courts are handled by someone called a “Code Enforcement Magistrate” and are there to insure openness, fairness, and transparency in the code process. They exist in virtually every government in the USA. They are commonplace. They are required. They are routine.
Except, as it turns out, in the former RCID which ruled for about 60 YEARS. There, apparently the rules did not have a hierarchy of oversight like everywhere else. That’s what we learned at the press conference this week from the newly-appointed Code Enforcement Magistrate for the new CFTOD which took over the government duty per Florida law, attorney Drew Crawford.
In fact, his careful inspection of the records proved there has NEVER been ANY code enforcement regime there until his hiring in the past few weeks. That’s what got me thinking and should get you thinking, too. When Governor DeSantis mentioned that the WDW Monorail — system which carries tens of thousands of families a day — had NEVER been inspected by the government at ANY time during construction or operation, the audience audibly gasped with shock. But as dangerous as that could be for passengers, if your room in a Disney hotel collapsed on you instead of the crash of your Monorail car, you and your kids would be just as dead.
According to a source with knowledge of the internal workings of safety inspections at Walt Disney World over its history, whether inspections and/or investigations took place for code issues was largely dependent on policy factors without public input.
Says the source: “I think the biggest take away from how RCID Building Code regime worked is that new projects were heavily scrutinized from about the year 2000 forward. Architects had to prove rigorous compliance with the EPCOT Building Code which in some important ways was more stringent than the Florida Building Code. Where things probably went amiss is that there was no ongoing code enforcement regime. Buildings that had already been built in the past were periodically inspected by the RCFD for fire safety but there was no ongoing code inspection beyond the day one compliance to get the building built. This resulted in older facilities that had ongoing code compliance issues would not be brought up to current codes until a point in time when the company chose to renovate the facility for a new or upgraded attraction. And even then, the building would only come up to code if the value of the renovation was at least 50% of the total value of the building. In a normal city, citizen complaints may drive code enforcement investigations but in a captured jurisdiction like RCID there was no ‘public’ to drive this type of proactive compliance work.”
THIS brings me to wonder larger.
Before we do, however, I want to make one exception to what we’re about to ponder. I’d like to mention someone you’ve probably never heard of before but who kept a watchful eye out for tourists who frequented the Disney Parks for the last twenty years. Jerry Wooldridge was Head of RCID building and safety for two decades. By all accounts, he did a tremendous job and was serious as he could be about keeping guests well-being at the front of every decision he made. Sadly, Mr. Wooldridge passed away just prior to CFTOD taking over and RCID ceasing to exist. I am told he was a remarkable man whose passing deeply effected so many in the theme park industry of Orlando. We need more Jerry Wooldridges. Unfortunately, not every person who oversees every inspection or code was like him. And because robust oversight is needed when we’re dealing with safety, we can’t count on every person being as incredible at their job as Mr. Wooldridge. But lest this article make any claim that would lessen his impact on keeping folks safe in Orlando, we wanted to call him out specifically as an exemplar of what everyone should attempt to be when it comes to keeping safety codes foremost.
There are others who oversee the Disney Parks who follow in Mr. Woolridge’s example. However, without a system in place, it’s easy to see how corners can be cut and issues can happen quickly when someone less scrupulous (and more budget-conscious) steps into a myriad of roles that oversee safety inspections. Perhaps that’s why the audience gasped when they heard what Drew Crawford had to say about the desperate need for a team of overseers.
We have all seen, for just one example, the amazing aerial photos of the new Universal “Epic Universe” park being built in Orlando and can see and further imagine just how many construction folks—skilled trades, laborers, supervisors, etc. etc.—are working on the massive site at any given hour of the day or night to get it ready for opening next year. But as big as it is, surely the total number of people who’ve been on the payroll at Disney itself or their subcontractors since 1968 building the theme parks, water parks, hotels, golf courses, roads, bridges, etc. etc. is larger by a factor of 100 or 1,000.
That brings this to my mind: HOW MANY PEOPLE actually were paid to do inspections at Disney under RCID? IF there was literally NO code enforcement TEAM during all of those years, that means too much was put on too few. It’s no shock then that we have heard of attractions being delayed for new additions because of possible code violations.
It sure would be interesting, would it not, to check the payroll records over the years and look for anyone with “Code Enforcement Inspector” as their job title, or for that matter with prior experience doing that in their resumes? If it was all carried by one (tremendous) individual, it’s a burden too great and was always destined to cause issues. As CFTOD took over, it’s no wonder they found it a flawed strategy for sure!
And here’s the final and biggest point: Nobody noticed, or at least nobody cared. NONE of those thousands upon thousands of hard-hats who’d surely worked outside of RCID in their lives even asked “Uh, hey, why are we not being held to the same codes as the rest of Florida?” or, if they did, they were told to shut up about that and forget it? And EVERYONE at ALL levels of management had to KNOW this was going on, even if only for the financial fact that code compliance costs money, and without it projects fairly estimated at X dollars really come in lower at Y. And that gets us into “where did the money they SAID was for this REALLY go?” and all sorts of potential financial and stockholder issues I leave to your imagination.
This has to be one of the biggest “open secrets” regarding construction, maintenance, and operation in the history of modern American government. We all know that Disney had different building codes that allowed for construction strategies that never would have been approved otherwise — now the Governor’s attorney is claiming that there never was a full-on regime to handle the issues. It makes us all the more grateful that at least we had Mr. Woolridge doing the very best he could. It would have been better, however, if he had been given the full-funding and hierarchical oversight necessary to push back when some things just didn’t add up. Maybe that was needed in other areas of the parks beyond building safety. After all, how many dragons have to burn down in different parks before you start to think more oversight is needed?
And the fact that it never was revealed, there were zero whistle-blowers, zero disgruntled-and-talking ex-employees, and zero journalists investigating and revealing this fact or that anyone who dared was threatened or bought off is, in, well, an “Epic Universe” of Disney scandals and crimes, maybe the biggest and most wide-ranging yet. It seems that a big “part of the magic” is effectively covering up the truth that all of us who’ve ever visited Disney’s magical world in Florida have been victims or potential victims of an astoundingly dangerous crime for nearly 60 years.
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The rot runs so deep