- December 4, 2025
Dear Editor:
What happens when someone knows or should have known that what they were doing is wrong, yet proceeds anyway. And what if that wrongful action causes a monetary loss to someone else?
The ethical answer, if you’re a “stand up guy,” is to acknowledge the mistake and make restitution. This principle applies to Mayor Mike Norris suing the city in his fruitless attempt to remove a council member. He lost the lawsuit, first and foremost because the court found the lawsuit had “no standing,” as well as failing on its merits.
“No standing” legalese means in essence that it was a mistake to file the lawsuit in the first place, ie., a wrongful action. City Attorney Marcus Duffy said he told Norris in advance that he did not have the necessary standing to file it, yet the mayor proceeded anyway only to find that indeed his action was fatally flawed from the onset.
The mayor’s wrongful action shifted the burden of his sound defeat onto our city, dipping into our taxpayer pockets to pay substantial legal fees to defend his lawsuit. Norris lost because he was wrong on legal principle, but the real losers, the real victims of the mayor’s action are obviously the taxpayers.
The mayor, however, had a whole different perspective. In a city council meeting following the court ruling, Norris had no remorse and took no responsibility. There was no attempt at reconciliation or any interest in restoring any semblance of camaraderie on the City Council. Instead, he took a combative position, scoffed at and refused the council’s suggestion that he voluntarily reimburse taxpayers, goaded them to sue him, while wildly proclaiming he didn’t care if he cost the city $1 million. And curiously, that proclamation may, at least partially, come to fruition since Norris had promised a lawsuit appeal to the Supreme Court, yet another very poorly considered and vastly more costly notion.
So much for the “stand up guy” principle, so much for taking responsibility for filing a “fools game” lawsuit and, of course, so much for recouping the lost taxpayer money from the mayor. And so much for expecting any relief from the troubling continual controversies this mayor has become well known for.
Bob Gordon
Palm Coast
Editor's note: From a July 9 Observer story, 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.
Dear Editor:
The restrictions should stay just the way they are. Move to Bunnell if you don’t like it. Sorry I voted for Norris.
Maria Menendez
Palm Coast
