- January 27, 2026
The Palm Coast Charter Review Committee will not be recommending specific changes to the city’s borrowing powers.
Instead, the Committee will recommend the Palm Coast City Council conduct a study to find out what would be the best limits on the city’s borrowing power. Changing the limitations themselves would be changing policy, Committee member Perry Mitrano said.
“That's a policy change and that's not what I think we're supposed to be doing on this,” Mitrano said. “They’re the ones that have to put that number in there.”
The Committee has been working to review all of the Palm Coast City Charter, which is required to be updated once every 10 years. Since last fall, it has been reviewing the charter in detail, making a variety of changes, from minor clarifying changes to substantial changes.
The Committee did not finalize their decision on the council’s contracting authority until its last meeting on Jan. 26.
The Palm Coast Charter Article VI, section (3)(e), outlines limitations to the council’s contracting authority.
It states: “Unless authorized by the electors of the City at a duly held referendum election, the Council shall not enter into lease purchase contracts or any other unfunded multiyear contracts, the repayment of which: extends in excess of 36 months; or exceeds $15,000,000.00.”
The limitations were the topic of hot debate in the November 2024 election when the city placed removing the section entirely on the ballot. Palm Coast residents voted against removing the restrictions.
“I think that the public opinion has been clearly stated that people want to leave this as it is,” Committee member Mike Martin said.
The Charter Review Committee opted to leave the section alone almost entirely, except to add language that clarifies the debt would be repaid from the general fund.
Removing the ordinance was off the table, as all five board members agreed the public clearly showed they wanted the limitations. But the question remained: Should the amount loaned or the length of the term be changed?
Ultimately, the Committee said, it isn’t their place to decide on the numbers.
“That's the council's direction,” Mitrano said. “They need to both dig into that number.”
Many of the board's substantive changes reflected issues that controlled the dais for over a year, including filling council vacancies when so close to an election, censuring elected members or asking the governor to remove an elected member and specifying noninterference with staff by council members.
The chamber also proposed adding a preamble to the charter and updated the required qualifications and evaluation criteria for a city manager and city attorney.
The compensation for council members also had proposed changes: the Committee is recommending that salary increases be at the same CPI rate as employees, and have proposed removing the health and retirement benefits council members can receive.
Here is the Committee’s top five ranked changes, from the most important:
Other top changes include clarifying noninterference policy with city staff by council members and the mayor, adopting a preamble and limiting elected officials to two total terms, but allowing a former mayor to run for city council and vice versa.
The Palm Coast City Council will review the changes and what is approved by the council will need to be approved by voters in a referendum in the Nov. 3 general election. A summary of the changes will be placed on the ballot for voters to vote on.
“It's always up to the voter to do their own research,” said Georgette Dumont. Dumont has been moderating the charter review process and will compile the changes for the council to review.
Dumont is tentatively scheduled to present the proposed changes to the Palm Coast City Council on Feb. 17. The council can choose to accept the proposed changes as is, reject them all, or make changes to the proposals.
