The Palm Coast City Council as a whole wrote to Governor Ron DeSantis today, accusing Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris of incompetence, misconduct, and dereliction of duty. They also asked that Norris be suspended from office and that an acting mayor be appointed to take his place.
For Palm Coast or any Flagler County administration, it would be an unprecedented move, but not for Florida. In 2022, DeSantis suspended Andrew Warren, the state attorney for Hillsborough, and in 2023, he suspended Monique Worrell, the state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties, for committing a felony. Neither had done anything wrong. Neither had a history of wrongdoing. Due to their choices as state attorneys, DeSantis suspended both.
Worrell and Warren are both Democrats. Republicans are what Norris is. According to an independent review, Norris’s conduct or misconduct and the actual financial cost to taxpayers of that wrongdoing are the main causes of the problems.
According to the letter, as conservative lawmakers who have willingly participated in the State’s DOGE initiatives, we place the highest priority on making the best use and safeguarding taxpayer funds. Since being elected in November 2021, the mayor’s actions have cost our residents tens of thousands of dollars[4], and despite our outcry over this waste of tax dollars, Mayor Norris recently said in a public meeting that he didn’t care if his actions cost the city a million dollars; he would still go ahead. We thus implore you to act promptly to remove Mr. Norris from office and designate a temporary successor to carry out the responsibilities of Mayor. (The letter, which had multiple exhibits, did not contain the URL.)
Although the letter implied that Norris’ activities were negatively impacting the city’s budget, it also played on the governor’s fondness for the state’s version of the federal Department of Government Efficiency, which has been auditing select local governments or agencies outside of Flagler County.
The letter mentions his most recent lawsuit against Charles Gambaro, a member of the city and council whose nomination Norris was opposing. The lawsuit was lost by Norris. The city had to pay around $30,000 to defend it. He wouldn’t pay any of it, Norris declared. The expense of an independent inquiry into Norris’ mistreatment of city employees, including actions that went against the city charter, was $15,000.
According to the letter to DeSantis, Anthony Sabatini, a St. Augustine attorney who is not exactly the governor’s friend, is Norris’s attorney. Sabatini submitted a motion for the Norris lawsuit to be heard on Thursday, which might result in additional legal expenses for taxpayers and most likely have the same outcome for Norris, who was judged to have no legal standing to bring the case in the first place.
When asked if he had previously been informed of this during a public meeting, the Mayor lied to the City Council and the public, claiming that he had never been informed. This made the situation even more egregious, according to the letter from the council members. The City Legal Department had repeatedly advised the Mayor that he had neither standing to bring such a lawsuit nor merit in his position.
Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri, along with Council members Gambaro, Dave Sullivan, and Ty Miller, signed the letter. Last week, the council approved sending the letter by a vote of 4-1. Norris disagreed. Pontieri, an attorney whose signature was delayed by an other (and less contentious but more significant) issue involving another elected official in Flagler County, only signed it today.
The governor will have the last say over the length of the suspension, as the four council members are requesting a suspension rather than dismissal and a suggestion of disciplinary rather than terminal intent. However, the strategy can create unproven legal grounds.
The council members list five justifications for Norris’s dismissal. His demands for the unilateral resignation of Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo and Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston (who has since accepted a position as assistant city manager in Palm Bay with former Palm Coast City Manager Matthew Morton, who resigned in 2021) are among the first examples of unsafe behavior and harassment.
The second is the failure to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the mayor’s office. According to the letter, Norris stated at a council meeting that he would no longer serve on committees, with one exception, as other council members do. He also stated that he has consistently neglected to attend ceremonial events as mandated by the City Charter and to meet with city employees, such as the city manager, with whom he declines to meet to discuss city matters, or investors in economic development.
The mayor has also declined to hold the meetings with civic, neighborhood, and non-profit organizations that his predecessors held more than a century ago as part of a mayor’s regular ambassadorial function in the city, but this is not mentioned in the letter.
Norris’s unwillingness to participate in a series of town hall meetings that the city arranged for all council members throughout the summer is also not mentioned in the letter. Next Monday, Norris decided to host his own town hall at a private location and make it clear on social media that the city was not funding it. Norris has previously accused city employees of spying on him, and instead of using his office at City Hall, he decided to interview two potential candidates for city manager by the tailpipe of his pickup truck.
The frivolous lawsuit—a phrase Gambaro frequently uses—is the letter’s third reason for suspension. The fourth is the ethical complaint, which was brought about by many of the previously mentioned issues, and which the council filed with the Florida Commission on ethical. Fifth, Norris is the only elected person in Flagler County history—either municipal or county—to ever receive two censure votes, let alone two in a three-month period.
According to the letter, all of these instances show a pattern of misconduct, mismanagement, neglect of responsibility, and incapacity that has caused irreversible harm and still does to Flagler County and the City of Palm Coast.
The letter went on to include the following clause, which was probably prompted or mandated by Pontieri, who expressed considerable discomfort and hesitancy to demand the removal of an elected official in the absence of criminal activity: We do not take lightly the sanctity of elections, and we hold dear the right of our citizens to elect their representatives. But our City Charter, the significance of leading as a single member of a five-member elected body, and the obligation to protect and preserve taxpayer funds have all been completely disregarded by Mayor Norris.
The council members electronically signed the letter after it was sent to them via email.
