Tuesday night, a belligerent Mike Norris declared that he didn’t give a damn if he cost the city a million dollars. He was not paying back a single cent of the $30,000 that taxpayers had to spend for the lawsuit he recently lost. He didn’t seem to agree with the court’s decision. He accused his coworkers of ignoring his December advise to shield the city from the lawsuit he ultimately filed. He informed his fellow Palm Coast City Council members that he would be requesting payment for his legal expenses related to the ethics complaint they had lodged against him. Additionally, he reaffirmed conspiracy theories concerning city employees and current events.
After colleagues, led by Council member Charles Gambaro, stated that only Norris could willingly reimburse the fees he charged the city, the mayor threw the gauntlet at the conclusion of a four-and-a-half-hour council meeting.
In May, Norris filed a lawsuit against Gambaro and the city, claiming that it was unlawful for the council to select Gambaro after the election on November 5. The suit was deemed frivolous by Gambaro. Last Monday, Circuit Judge Chris France made a clear decision, holding that the city operated within the charter even on the merits and that Norris lacked standing to sue.
Norris hinted that the judge was wrong, the city was wrong, and he was right on Tuesday, but he did not admit that he had lost the lawsuit. “I will always stand up for our residents’ right to choose their representative if I feel that something is amiss,” Norris stated.
He made no signs that he would stop disobeying the results of investigations, legal counsel, and now a court ruling. The expenses wouldn’t either. He did not state if he will file an appeal. Norris wiped down whatever optimism the council might have had that the decision would quell the unrest.
According to Council member Theresa Pontieri, we have now heard twice—whether true or not—that you were given legal advice that you have disregarded, which has ultimately cost us money. Therefore, it’s annoying. Stop it, please.
Prior to the lawsuit, Norris was informed by City Attorney Marcus Duffy that his attempt to terminate Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo and Acting City Manager Laurent Johnston was against the charter. An examination by a Tallahassee lawyer revealed that Norris had broken the charter after he disregarded the city attorney’s recommendation and requested the two top employees to quit nevertheless. The city spent $15,000 on the probe.
On Tuesday, Duffy stated that the litigation, which is being handled by GrayRobinson on behalf of the city, would cost approximately $30,000.
According to Gambaro, we talked about efficiency, saving taxpayer cash, and numbers and dollars a lot. What is the council’s stance on maybe requesting that the mayor pay back taxpayers for the pointless lawsuit?
It was laughed off by Norris. He said, “Take me to court.”
Pontieri wanted to determine if Norris had standing to sue and if he had been told why the decisions about the appointment were made before he filed the lawsuit. In reference to Jeremiah Blocker, a member of Palm Coast’s legal team and an attorney at the St. Augustine-based Douglas Law Firm, Duffy stated, “Yes, both Mr. Blocker and I advised the mayor on those issues.”
Were you informed of the problems, Mayor Norris? Ponieri questioned him.
“No,” Norris answered, “I wasn’t.”
Pontieri, an attorney herself, told the mayor, “I’ll tell you straight out, I blame your attorney in part because a basic tenet of your attorney’s job is to tell you you don’t have standing file a lawsuit.” Anthony Sabatini of St. Augustine, a former lawmaker who gained notoriety for embracing controversy disguised as populism—a strategy that Norris supports—represented him.
The general fund is where these funds originate. According to Pontieri, they so originate from the same fund that influences property taxes. They originate from the same revenues that we use for the police, fire department, parks and recreation, streets, and all of the other things we discussed tonight. You see, I have a problem with it.
After Norris resigned most of his mayoral duties, the vice mayor took over the position of mayor at the expense of her own time, unrecorded expenses, and less obvious sacrifices. She investigated the legal justifications for seeking legal fees but was unable to find any. She added that there is no way for the council to get the money back.
However, Pontieri stated that it is irritating for him, as well as for the entire council and citizens, that Norris filed a lawsuit despite being told that his chances of success were slim to nonexistent.
I will not accuse Mayor Norris of lying. “I will not accuse Mr. Duffy of lying,” Pontieri stated. What transpired throughout their conversations is only known to Norris, Duffy, and Blocker. I believe that if I were the plaintiff in this case, I would compensate the legal bills if it were indeed advised that you have no standing and are therefore unable to seek damages. However, as I was not privy to those discussions, I am unable to make a request because we are unsure of what transpired.
Ty Miller and Dave Sullivan, two council members, concurred that the council’s only option is to ask Norris to cover the legal costs. Miller stated that the question has been asked and addressed. It appears that none of those fees will be recovered.
Norris had repeatedly anxiously asked council members if they had anything more to say in an attempt to adjourn the meeting. Then he defended himself.
Norris urged his colleagues, “We can close this out real quick, be done with this,” which contradicted his seven-month attack on the council and the expense to taxpayers. Then, in one of his most startling reversals, he accused his own lawsuit of being caused by the City Council. I requested a legal opinion specifically. In particular. “And all of you denied it,” he reported.
When Norris first alluded to lawsuit, he was alluding to a meeting on December 3. However, nobody anticipated that he would be the one to file it at that time. Toward the close of a lengthy discussion that December day, he raised the question of the appointment’s validity. (Watch the video here.) He stated that he wanted Duffy to provide a formal opinion on the Gambaro appointment along with a charter interpretation.
The four other council members, including Ray Stevens at the time (who has since been replaced by Dave Sullivan), were all extremely apprehensive, particularly since Duffy claimed to have previously expressed that opinion via emails. According to Stevens, asking for an opinion after the fact could be interpreted as an expression of guilt. Pontieri claimed that it exposes us to even greater vulnerability, even though the council had already acted on Duffy’s recommendations. (See: Palm Coast Mayor Norris Requests Legal Advice Regarding Gambaro Appointment, But Is Turned Down in a Perplexing Move.
Oddly enough, Norris frequently defended a legal judgment by arguing that it would shield the city from a lawsuit. None of the nine other candidates for the seat that Gambaro was appointed to declared they would file a lawsuit. Although there had been public criticism of the procedure, no one had brought up the possibility of filing a lawsuit—and no one would have had the legal authority to do so.
In hindsight, it appears that Norris’ perplexing Dec. 3 request, as it was described in a headline on this website, might have been a calculated move to set him up for the lawsuit he ultimately filed in May. He was defending himself on Tuesday night by citing those Dec. 3 statements once more.
Norris said on Tuesday that if you want to try to sue me or recover money for a law firm that Mr. Duffy should have represented us in that case rather than an outside business that we contract with, then by all means do so. Norris was not sued for the legal fees, according to any of the council members.
Norris went on: “Go ahead and try it if you want to come after me about all the money that has been wasted in the city, the Lawson report, and everything else.” But I’ll get up. Even if it costs the city a million dollars, I don’t care. If I m defending our residents right to pick their representative, and if I feel something s wrong, I m going to do it every time.
Norris then falsely accused Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston of discussing with FlaglerLive a meeting he had with Johnston and Mark Strobridge, the interim assistant city manager, and of providing details of that conversation, as if he were more interested in media coverage than a judge’s decision or the city’s $30,000 bill. (Norris was wrong; instead of using facts, he relied on rumors and plots. No one at City Hall had informed on the meeting, though the city manager s meeting schedule, as the mayor s ought to be, is a public record. A city spokesperson confirmed that the meeting took place, but did not speak to its substance. Strobridge in an attempted interview would not even confirm whether the meeting took place. Johnston was not contacted about the meeting, prior experience making any attempt to gain privileged information from her, on or off record, a hopeless exercise. Norris did not contact FlaglerLive before making his false claims, and does not respond to FlaglerLive s requests for interviews.)
What does that have to do with anything? Pontieri asked Norris.
I m telling you, what s going on in this city, he said. But he was not. When Pontieri asked him to be more specific with his allegations, Norris wouldn t explain. The meeting adjourned.
