- June 20, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council remains without a city manager after a series of five votes - including one that required a redo - left the council deadlocked.
The April 29 meeting was to choose between the two remaining candidates who have applied for the Palm Coast city manager position: Paul Trombino and Richard Hough. From the beginning, the council was split: councilman Charles Gambaro stated outright that while both candidates were qualified, he preferred Trombino, while Mayor Mike Norris preffered Hough.
Councilmen Ty Miller and Dave Sullivan and Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri all approached the choice with caution, state that while both candidates had strong qualifications, they might not be the right fit. Miller and Sullivan said they wanted to hear from their fellow council members first, while Pontieri said the vote should be unanimous.
"This type of decision needs to be five-zero," she said. "I think that it's very important that we set up a city manager for success, and if any of us expresses a lack of confidence in their ability to manage the city, I don't know that we're setting them up for success."
But instead of unity, five successive votes were cast that ended in a 3-2 split. Here’s what happened:
Mayor Mike Norris passed the gavel to Pontieri and motioned to select Hough for city manager. The council voted 3-2 against Hough, with Pontieri, Gambaro and Miller voting no. Gambaro then nominated Trombino and the council voted 3-2 for Trombino, with Sullivan, Gambaro and Norris voting for him.
But during closing comments, Sullivan said: “I just want to say to Mr. Trombino, you did a great job. You're well qualified for the job, but I chose Mr. Hough.”
Sullivan, who had been having difficulty hearing the meeting over zoom due to issues with the audio, had thought he voted to select Hough as city manager.
Sullivan said multiple times during the meeting he had difficulty hearing what was being said, even causing Pontieri to move seats and search for a different microphone to ensure she was heard clearly. Doug Thomas, with Strategic Government Resources, also listening in virtually, said he had similar issues during the meeting.
"It's very hard to understand everything that's going on," Sullivan said. He later added that he could hear Thomas clearly, just not the audio from City Hall.
City attorney Marcus Duffy said, to clarify the record, the council needed to redo the roll call vote on Trombino. The vote was again 3-2, this time against Trombino, with Sullivan joining Pontieri and Miller.
This left the council with only two moves: either someone who had voted against a candidate could nominate that candidate for reconsideration, requiring a subsequent vote be held to select that candidate, or the council could choose to search for more candidates.
Norris, who had voted yes for both candidates, asked multiple times if any of his fellow council members would motion to reconsider either candidate. Sullivan eventually motioned for Trombino to be reconsidered, which passed in a 3-2 vote, with Pontieri and Miller against.
Only for the second vote selecting Trombino as city manager to fail 3-2 when Sullivan decided to stand with his earlier "no" vote. He said he agreed with the vice mayor that the vote should be unanimous.
"I don't think we have a unanimous vote here, for either candidate," he said. "I feel that without a unanimous vote, I don't think we are able to select a candidate."
The council will not be returning to the drawing board, despite the deadlock. For Pontieri, the biggest issues with the candidates, she said, is that neither had the budgetary experience that she felt was required of a city manager to Palm Coast, which boasts a $421 million budget.
"I have a very big concern that we would be bringing in a city manager that has never dealt with anything close to a budget of this magnitude," she said.
Pontieri, with the council's consensus, suggested the two candidates create a whitepaper explaining their experience handling budgets.
Norris proposed the two candidates could have their whitepapers submitted for a Friday, May 3 meeting, but on advice from Duffy - who suggested a seven-day public notice period - and Thomas - who needed to confer with the candidates' availability - the presentation has been tentatively scheduled for the Tuesday, May 6 business meeting.
Before the back-to-back failed votes, the council members had their reservations. Miller reminded the council that they were originally asking the search firm to find them "a rock star" of a candidate.
"I question whether we've kind of hit that mark of a 'rock star' and one that we have full confidence will come fix the problems within our city," Miller said.
Sullivan said both candidates are qualified but wished there was "someone who had the qualities" of both candidates, then "we would have a perfect candidate."
Pontieri said her main reservations were about Trombino's and Hough's lack of budget experience, though both candidates had "high levels of integrity" and a strong work ethic.
“I don't know that either of them is fully qualified to take on this role at this time," Pontieri said, "particularly with basically a new council, and I'm concluding myself in that because I've only been on this council for less than three years.”
Some members of the public felt the council should not be pressured into choosing a city manager if the candidates are not a good fit.
"There's no reason to pick somebody right now," resident Eddie Lang said. "The indecisiveness that we're seeing - obviously, nobody's got full confidence in what we're choosing. I don't think this should go through, you should all vote no."
Resident David Ferguson said the council really needed to consider why they’re voting for the candidates.
“They’re impressive people,” he said. “But are they the ones you really want? Or are you just settling because you’re desperate to have a city manager?”
