- May 23, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council has unanimously approved a vote of no-confidence and censure against Mayor Mike Norris after an investigation into Norris revealed his behavior with city staff has violated the city charter.
Palm Coast Council member Charles Gambaro called for the censure and vote of no-confidence at the April 22 workshop meeting after reading through the investigation results on April 21. He said the investigation results “extremely disturbing.”
“I'm truly disappointed with his behavior, his wild accusations against his counsel, members of our single staff, members of our community, enough without any supporting facts to his claims,” Gambaro said.
Norris - who was absent from the workshop meeting - did not return a phone call from the Observer in time for publication.
Originally, Gambaro also motioned to send a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis to have Norris removed. But Council member Dave Sullivan suggested the council instead send a formal complaint to the Florida Commission on Ethics .
“I'm not saying that we won't eventually send a letter,” Sullivan said. “But if the ethics committee agrees with our position, it's a lot stronger.”
Council member Ty Miller agreed reaching out to the ethics commission is a “good middle ground.”
“You're referring it to an outside body,” Miller said. “They have their rules and standards that they abide by, and they do this for a living.”
Gambaro agreed the ethics commission was the way to go and changed his motion.
In the mean time, the council is working to have the investigator at the firm Lawson come to Palm Coast to present his findings on April 30 or May.
Miller also said he was disappointed in Norris' actions.
“The findings outline repeat violations of the city charter, not just once or twice, but multiple times," Miller said. If any employee regular were judged by these standards, “they would have been terminated, plain and simple. That would not be tolerated in a normal workplace," he said.
Palm Coast uses a government model termed as the "weak mayor" system, where the mayor is a member of the city's council but largely functions in a ceremonial position, and has "narrowly defined emergency and contractual powers," according to the investigation and the city charter.
Those powers do not include the hiring or firing of city staff, power which lays in the hands of the city manager. The mayor can move for the removal of the city manager or the city attorney, but the actual removal of those employees would still be determined by a majority vote of the Palm Coast City Council.
The city charter, in fact, expressly prohibits any council member or the mayor from "interfering with the performance of the duties of any City employee who is under the direct or indirect supervision of the City Manager or City Attorney. Such action shall be malfeasance within the meaning of Florida Statutes."
In the investigation report, Norris was found to have overstepped when he "explicitly sought to pressure" Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo for their resignations.
Miller noted that Norris was told multiple times that what he was doing was wrong.
The investigation also found, through interviews with Norris and various members of city staff, including Johnston, DeLorenzo, and Communications Director Brittany Kershaw, behavior that could have left the city open to several lawsuits including derogatory comments to staff and directions to hire younger employees as older employees are more costly. Additionally, the report states multiple employees confirmed that Norris regularly uses profane and unprofessional language that any other employee would be fired for.
Pontieri and Miller both said the council and staff have been "a good amount of misrepresentation and lies" from Norris. Pontieri said she had hoped the investigation would turn up that actions had been committed from a lack of understanding. Instead, she said, the investigation shows Norris acted in contradiction to the charter.
Miller said leaders are supposed to conduct themselves in a manner that is above reproach.
"Respect isn't demanded in leadership," Miller said. "It's earned through integrity, accountability and how you treat others."
Pontieri initially said she felt the censure and votes should wait until the lawyer who conducted the report could present his findings to the council.
"My hesitancy with doing it now, prior to the investigator coming forth and presenting the findings is he's also supposed to present recommendations of how we move forward," Pontieri said.
When a resident also mentioned that the discussion shouldn't be had until Norris was present, Miller said Norris chose not to attend the meeting.
"His job is to be here, and he chose not to. That says all that needs to be said. He could be here, rebutting this, talking about it. He's not.”
