- December 4, 2025
The feud between Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris and Council member Charles Gambaro continues: Norris has posted Gambaro’s personal cell phone number on his Facebook page after Free for All Friday radio host David Ayres blasted Norris’ work cell phone number on the July 11 show.
Gambaro, Palm Coast Economic Manager Craig McKinney and co-host Brian McMillan were all surprised when Ayres proposed giving out the mayor’s work cell phone number for an informal “poll” for residents.
"We text the mayor and say, ‘Hey, Mayor Mike, I love you. You're doing a great job. Keep it up.’ Or we text him and say, 'You need to go, please resign,’” Ayres said. “So it'd be kind of an A or B, yes, we support you, [or] no, we don't.”
Ayres encouraged listeners to be nice if they texted Norris and said multiple times that the number he was giving out was the mayor’s city cell phone number, not Norris’ personal number. The city cell phone number of all the council members is posted on their biography pages on Palm Coast’s website.
“We're not harassing him personally, or anything like that, because it's our cell phone that he has the honor and the right to use while he serves us,” Ayres said.
After the radio show, Norris, in retaliation, posted Gambaro’s personal cell phone number to Facebook, calling the council member “the epitome of a DEI (Didn’t Earn It) Hire.”
“Since he and his cronies felt the need to share my phone number on air today like children, you can text NO DEI Representatives in Palm Coast to Mr. Gambaro,” Norris wrote.
More than 24 hours after he initially posted Gambaro's personal cell number, Norris edited his Facebook post and changed the phone number to Gambaro's city cell phone number on Saturday, July 12.
While Norris could not be reached for a comment in time for this article's publication, Gambaro submitted a statement in response to his personal number being posted online.
"The release of my personal phone number to the public on Mayor Norris' Facebook page was intentionally done to intimidate my family and I," Gambaro wrote.
He said the mayor's actions violates the spirit of Florida Senate Bill 268, which became law on July 1. The law exempts the addresses and personal phone numbers of public officials from public records requests.
In a phone interview with the Observer, Gambaro said since Norris' post he has received harassing text messages, phone calls and voicemails to his personal phone. It has caused he and his to be more vigilant. They're doing everything they can to protect themselves, he said.
As far as Ayres' actions, Gambaro said he believed the radio host's intentions were just to find out what the public's sentiment on Norris was. Gambaro said he did not know Ayres was going to give out Norris' city cell phone number.
Norris actions have "crossed a line," he said, from civility and politics.
"This is truly the action of a reckless man that does not care about the safety of the residents he was elected to serve," he said.
The conflict between Gambaro and Norris began before Norris was elected in November, with Gambaro’s appointment to the City Council District 4 seat. Gambaro, a brigadier general with the U.S. Army Reserve, applied for was appointed to the seat in October after former council member Cathy Heighter resigned in August.
Norris, and his supporters have called Gambaro’s appointment illegal as three of the four other council seats were up for election in November.
In April, Gambaro motioned for the council to hold a vote of no-confidence in Norris, after multiple city employees had filed complaints against the mayor. The vote passed, 4-0, following an investigation that revealed Norris had violated the Palm Coast City Charter when he asked for Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and former Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo’s resignations.
That investigation is set to be reviewed by the Florida Commission on Ethics. Since the vote of no-confidence, Norris has only participated in City Council meetings and on the joint municipality meetings with Flagler County – he has refused to participate on other boards, at city events or in Town Hall meetings as the other council members have done.
In May, Norris filed a lawsuit against Palm Coast and Gambaro, asking the court to remove Gambaro from the District 4 seat and to hold an emergency special election. Circuit Court Judge Christopher France found Norris had no legal standing to file the law. France also said, “Although the result is flawed, the charter was complied with to fill the vacancy.”
In the City Council meeting on July 8, Gambaro asked the council to consider going after Norris for the city’s attorney fees used in the lawsuit, an estimated $30,000. Norris said the council could take him to court for those fees and that he didn’t “care if it costs the city a million dollars,” he would continue "defending our residents right to pick their representative."
Gambaro called the mayor “Million-dollar Mike.”
“Mike made his comment that he wasn't concerned about spending a million dollars worth of taxpayers funds, which is a problem,” Gambaro said.
Gambaro said the city has not heard back yet from the ethics commission, but he said he still believes the council should ask Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove Norris from the mayor seat if the Ethics Commission returns a finding in the city’s complaint against Norris.
He said he’s never seen the leader of an organization react the way Norris has. Norris was elected to the seat, Gambaro said, but has not been showing up for the job, referencing Norris’ absence from city events and other boards Palm Coast council members sit on.
“He was elected to do a job,” Gambaro said. “Even if the people around him don't agree with the way he's doing it, they don't have any confidence he is supposed to still do his job.”
Brian McMillan, who co-hosts the show and owns the Palm Coast Observer, said he thinks Norris is in a very difficult position. It is a part of the city’s charter, McMillan said, for the mayor to be a part of the city events.
“If I'm Mayor Norris and I just had a vote of no confidence against me, I can sort of understand why he'd say, ‘Well, I probably shouldn't be on those boards if all of you just took no confidence in me,’” McMillan said.
This story was updated at 4 p.m. on July 12 with a statement from Councilman Gambaro. The article was again updated at 6:53 p.m. on July 12 after Mayor Norris updated his Facebook post to change the phone number to Gambaro's city cell number.
