A Former Top Executive Sues Walt Disney Co. : Entertainment: He claims he’s a scapegoat for delays in some theme park rides.
When Disneyland’s Splash Mountain opened in July, 1989, few thrill-seekers complained that it was eight months late. But now a former top Walt Disney Co. executive says he became the fall guy, unfairly blamed by the company for the costly delay.
Jeffrey A. Rochlis says in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that he has taken a financial soaking for being made a scapegoat for the problems connected with the project. Under pressure last year, he resigned his high-paying post as executive vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering, the division that designs park attractions.
In his suit, in Los Angeles Superior Court, Rochlis alleges that unnamed Disney officials breached his contract “to preserve their own personal positions, reputations and extraordinary compensation to avoid being held accountable for Imagineering’s schedule delays, cost overruns and management and other problems.”
The suit alleges that Disney Chairman Michael Eisner and Imagineering President Martin A. Sklar later defamed Rochlis, blaming him for problems connected with Splash Mountain and the Pleasure Island adult restaurant and entertainment complex at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Thomas Deegan, a Disney spokesman, declined comment on the suit, which names the Burbank-based company and its Imagineering unit as defendants. It asks for damages of more than $5 million.
Splash Mountain is a log flume ride that takes thrill-seeking visitors on a trip past singing life-like bears and other animals. Its opening was delayed while engineers tried to fix various design glitches. In particular, the final 45 mile-per-hour drop through a foggy briar patch was soaking riders. The problem was fixed, although guests still get a little wet.
The delay became a costly embarrassment for the Anaheim theme park, which had touted Splash Mountain as its newest attraction in 1989. The ride was Disneyland’s biggest hope of drawing new visitors, but the season was half over before the attraction was operating properly.
Pleasure Island also ran into delays before it opened two years ago, creating problems at Disney World in Orlando.
Deegan said the Imagineering division, conceived by Walt Disney himself as a mix of artistry and engineering magic to create pioneering rides, is well-managed and staying busy.
“They are probably the finest organization of their kind in the world,” he said. “We’re very happy with Imagineering.”
In his lawsuit, however, Rochlis paints a distinctly different picture of the Imagineering he found when he transferred to the new job in October, 1987.
“Imagineering was poorly managed, supervised and staffed,” the lawsuit states. “Most of the company’s major projects faced substantial delays and enormous cost overruns; and . . . there were literally hundreds of significant problems in virtually every aspect of the company and its various projects.”
Rochlis alleges that he was never told of the problems, but sought to solve them anyway as he found them. He expanded and revamped the organization, cutting excess costs, the suit states.
The suit says Rochlis soon found his authority being undercut. He allegedly was kept from participating in Imagineering’s creative activities, and claims subordinates were told to report directly to Sklar. Under threat of being fired, they were told to withhold key facts about the problems with the Splash Mountain ride at Disneyland and Pleasure Island, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit states that Eisner told Rochlis at a staff meeting that Rochlis and a subordinate were “personally responsible” for the Splash Mountain problems.
Under the criticism, Rochlis quit the job, which paid a $225,000 salary and a $200,000 bonus in 1987. In addition, Rochlis alleges that his resignation cost him more than $1 million in lost stock options.
Even after he left, the lawsuit alleges that Sklar told other officers that Rochlis had been fired because of the Pleasure Island and Splash Mountain “fiascos.”
Such statements led to the widespread belief that Rochlis was responsible for the cost overruns and delays in opening the rides, the suit claims. But the suit stated that Rochlis “exerted extraordinary efforts to help solve these problems and, among numerous other things, successfully restructured, expanded and upgraded the Imagineering organization.”
