- May 13, 2025
Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris has filed an emergency complaint to remove City Councilman Charles Gambaro from his seat and order a special election.
Norris, and many of his supporters, have said repeatedly that Gambaro’s placement on the council was “illegitimate.” Gambaro was appointed in October 2024 to replace former Councilwoman Cathy Heighter.
In a phone interview with the Observer, Norris’ attorney Anthony Sabatini said the issue is “black and white” in the Palm Coast City Charter.
“It’s totally clear,” he said. “They were supposed to call the election and they just didn’t.”
Sabatini filed the case on May 5 in Flagler County's Circuit Court of the Judicial Circuit. It lists Palm Coast, the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections and Gambaro specifically as defendants.
According to a statement Sabatini posted on his X social media account, Norris is seeking a “writ of quo warranto” to remove Gambaro from office, a court declaration that Gambaro’s District 4 seat is vacant, an order compelling a special election be held and an injunction preventing Gambaro from further occupying the seat.
Sabatini, who is also a Lake County Commissioner, said one of his areas of expertise is in election and administrative law. Palm Coast might be able to make the argument that it was too close to the election, but, he said, the charter does not make an exception for that.
“The charter says that the tenure of the person you appoint ends on Nov. 5,” Sabatini said. “So on Nov. 5, whether they called the election or not, Gambaro, his tenure ended on the General Election Day.”
Norris declined to provide additional comment outside his attorney's statement on X.
The Palm Coast Charter, Article IV, Section 7(e) states that if a vacancy is in the first two years of a council member’s term, “the office shall be filled by appointment within 90 days” of the seat being vacated. But the section then continues: “Such appointments shall last until the next regularly scheduled election, at which time the seat shall be declared open and an election held for the remaining two years of the original term.”
Heighter resigned on Aug. 23, after the primary election and just two weeks before the Sept. 6 filing deadline for the Nov. 5 election. At the time, the city did argue that there was not enough time for petition candidates to qualify for the ballot, meaning only those who could afford the $3,500 filing fees would be on the ballot.
Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri, who was just Councilwoman Pontieri at the time, said in the Aug. 27 meeting following Heighter’s resignation that she did not want the “city council seat to be bought.”
The charter does not take that into consideration, Sabatini said.
"It's black and white," Sabatini said. "I can't even imagine what their counter argument is going to be."
If the judge were to uphold the case in favor of Norris, Sabatini said the judge would have the discretion on whether or not to overrule ordinances or laws that were passed on a 3-2 vote.
But at this stage, Sabatini said he and Norris were just interested in upholding the charter by forcing an election.
"They were supposed to call it [an election], and that's all," he said. "He's [Gambaro] been there unlawfully for six months."
