'These monies come out of the general fund,' Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri said. 'So they come out of the very fund that affects property taxes.'
Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris’ lawsuit against Palm Coast may have cost taxpayers around $30,000.
While the final costs have not been invoiced, City Attorney Marcus Duffy said the city was looking at “around the $30,000 range.” Palm Coast and Councilman Charles Gambaro were represented by a third-party attorney, Rachael Crews, as the named defendants in Norris’ lawsuit.
Gambaro asked the City Council for consensus to request Norris pay the city the attorney fees for the “frivolous lawsuit.”
“Take me to court,” Norris told Gambaro.
Norris sued Palm Coast, Gambaro and the Supervisor of Elections Office in May over Gambaro’s tenure as a City Council member. His lawsuit alleged Palm Coast violated the city charter by appointing Gambaro and asked the court to remove Gambaro from the seat.
The circuit judge overseeing the case dismissed Norris’ case at its July 3 hearing, stating that the mayor had no standing to sue in the first place.
It is common for the city to hire third-party attorneys to handle specific court cases and lawsuits, with the city attorney position to handle in-house legal advice and questions.
Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri asked Duffy if he had advised the mayor on the lawsuit’s lack of standing and why the decisions were made at the time, and Duffy said he did. Norris said he was not advised on those issues.
Pontieri said she in part blamed Norris’ attorney for not accurately advising Norris on the case's lack of standing. It’s frustrating, she said.
“These monies come out of the general fund,” she said “So they come out of the very fund that affects property taxes.”
But, Pontieri said, the council does not have the legal grounds to pursue attorney fees.
“It’s frustrating for me, it should be frustrating for the whole council and it should be frustrating for the residents,” Pontieri said. “If, in fact, there was advice given that there really is zero merit to this, and that there sure isn't standard, and it was ignored – It's cost the taxpayers money.”
Councilmen Ty Miller and Dave Sullivan agreed with Pontieri that there was no legal avenue to pursue the attorney fees. The most they could do, Sullivan said, is request Norris repay the fees.
“It doesn’t look like we’re going to recoup those fees,” Miller said.
Norris said the council could “go right ahead and try” coming after him for the legal fees. He said that he specifically requested legal advice on the situation and “every single one of you denied it,” speaking to the fellow council members.
“I don't care if it costs the city a million dollars,” Norris said. “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 also reminded the council that he would be entitled to a reimbursement of his legal fees in regards to the ethics complaint the city has filed against him. He is only eligible for the reimbursement if the Florida Ethics Commission sides in favor of Norris after reviewing the complaint.
The council sent the ethics complaint after an external review of complaints against Norris showed that he had violated the Palm Coast City Charter by demanding the resignations of Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo. Norris denies that he demanded their resignations.
Pontieri pointed out that regardless of the semantics Norris is arguing, he was given legal advice by Duffy that asking for the resignations violated the charter.
“Now twice – whether it’s true or not, according to you, – we have heard that legal advice has been given to you that you haven't followed, and it's ended up costing us money,” Pontieri said.