- May 13, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council has agreed to send an investigation into Mayor Mike Norris' actions violating the Palm Coast City Charter to the Florida Ethics Commission, but with the witness statements sworn under oath.
The investigation - performed by Adam Brandon of the third-party firm Lawson Huck Gonzales, PLLC - was to see if Norris violated the city charter. Brandon received witness statements from 13 people, including Norris, as part of his investigation, which he presented to the council at a May 1 special business meeting.
The investigation found, based on the witness statements, that Norris had violated the city charter: By asking for the resignations of Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo, Norris was interfering with their jobs, Brandon said at the May 1 meeting - an act that is expressly prohibited in the city charter.
"We are following the proper process that needs to be taken," Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri said on May 6. "This is the natural next step because there was an admitted charter violation."
At the May 1 meeting, the council decided to have all the witnesses swear to their statements under oath and then sent the investigation with an approved cover letter to the commission after the May 6 meeting. The cover letter will include that the council passed a vote of no confidence in Norris on April 22 in a 4-0 vote and that Norris made inappropriate comments and used profane language to intimidate staff.
The original draft referenced specific comments Norris made about two female staff members' dress and nail polish.
"If we specifically highlight these two, it could look like we're minimizing other concerns and complaints," Pontieri said. "And I don't want to do that to our staff."
City Attorney Marcus Duffy said on May 6 that Brandon was working on getting all the statements sworn in.
"The plan is that I will add those to the report as none of the statements are going to change," Duffy said.
Former Vice Mayor Ed Danko was one of those who submitted a witness statement, though his was a copy of a complaint Danko was filing with the ethics commission against Norris on his own. The council was concerned at the May 1 meeting about using a complaint that had yet to be processed by the ethics commission, and on May 6 Duffy recommended the council remove Danko's complaint from the witness statements "out of an abundance of caution."
Brandon said the city could respond to the violation in multiple ways: refer the investigation to further legal review, censure Norris, which was done at the April 22 meeting, hire a new city manager for stability, and implement training for the council and key city staff on the charter's requirements, ethics, respectful workplace conduct and on the Sunshine Laws.
Brandon said the city should also update the city charter.
"You have a situation where you have a very clear charter, but you don't have clear enforcement mechanisms," Brandon said.
Councilman Charles Gambaro also made another motion at the May 1 meeting to send a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis for Norris' removal, but that motion failed 4-1, with all but Gambaro voting against it. Pontieri and Councilman Dave Sullivan said they felt the ethics commission should be the next step.
"I still feel as I did at the previous meeting, that the next step is to the ethics board. It does not make sense right now to go directly to the governor," Sullivan said.
During Brandon's presentation of his findings, he said that he also found that the mayor had made inappropriate comments to female staff, made demeaning comments to staff, and used profane language that may have intimidated employees.
Gambaro point-blank asked Brandon if he thought Norris violated the city's charter.
"Yes," Brandon said.
Norris denied the use of the word "demand," stating that he "certainly did not demand anyone's resignation," just requested it.
Brandon said that whether it was a demand or a request was not the issue.
“The question in my mind is not whether this was a demand or request,” he said, “but whether under the charter this constituted interference. I don't see how you can take one council member asking for two key employees to resign as anything other than interference.”
Multiple times, Norris said he didn't understand why any of the complaints weren't brought to him if people had an issue with his behavior.
In his 24 years of active duty service, Norris said, he's never had a single HR complaint. He called this a "public lynching."
"I have never, ever been treated like this," Norris said. "I would never treat anyone on the dais this way."
Pontieri said her concerns were not just about the charter violation but about Norris' behavior outlined in the investigation.
“There is definitely a hat you have to put on when you sit in that seat, and when we sit in these seats, and conduct ourselves probably in a different manner than we would with our friends or even in our other jobs,” Pontieri said,
To Norris' supporters in the audience, Pontieri asked if they would be as supportive of the behavior if it were former Mayor David Alfin behaving this way.
"If the shoe were on the other foot," she said, "if there were somebody else in the seat that you didn't agree with, didn't like, but they were conducting themselves with the same type of behavior, would you be condoning it in the same way?”
Pontieri aid she was a supporter of Norris' too, but she couldn't "condone this behavior.”
"There's a correct way to go about doing these things," she said.
For Norris’ supporters, the investigation is not as cut and dry as the council felt.
"It's not the duly elected mayor who's creating this hostile environment," one resident said, "it is the entrenched powers within the city government, past and present. That's what we elected him to do, was clean house."
Several members of the public trivialized the contents of the investigation and more placed the blame on Gambaro’s shoulders. Gambaro, in March, was the first person to bring up the accusations against Norris attempting to unilaterally ask for Johnston and DeLorenzo’s resignations.
Many residents have stated multiple times since Gambaro replaced Cathy Heighter in October that they believed he should never have been appointed to the seat.
“Your problem is right there," resident Candace Stevens said, gesturing to Gambaro. "How come everything against you, Mr. Mayor, is coming out of your (Gambaro's) mouth?"
Resident Donna McGevna said that she supported Norris and believed him to be sincere, but pointed out that the mayor should adapt his military-style behavior to the workplace.
"That may be suitable for after hours, but when it's in the workplace, it just can't be," she said.
