The Palm Coast City Council held their evening business meeting at 6 pm. The meeting centered around a long agenda with many hot topics including the search for a City Manager. During the discussion for the city manager search the discussion became heated between Mayor Norris and Councilman Gambaro, with Gambaro stating that “Norris Gate” is the reason that the final two candidates pulled their applications. Norris asked the council to make a motion to offer candidate Hough the position “on bended knee”, to which no one responded. Norris then passed the gavel to Vice Mayor Pontieri allowing him to make a motion to fire SGR, and move forward with a new search, via the traditional methods such as LinkedIn, Monster, Indeed, and other traditional methods. Pontieri and Miller both discussed their preference to wait for at least a short window before starting the search again, with Pontieri suggesting a 30-day waiting period before moving forward. The City Attorney advised the Mayor to break up his motion into smaller pieces, to which the mayor agreed, withdrawing his motion and issuing a new one to fire the firm SGR. The motion to fire SGR passed unanimously. Mayor Norris made another motion to search for traditional means that would remain open for 45 days, there was no second. Vice Mayor gave the gavel back to make another motion, to search for a city through traditional means that would remain open for 90 days, which was seconded. Councilman Sullivan spoke about his apprehension to starting a search immediately and said he would prefer a waiting period, and Gambaro agreed with Sullivan. Pontieri said she understands the apprehension but feels the search needs to start. The motion to move forward with an internal search which would be open for 90 days passed unanimously, and the ad for a job search will be discussed at the next workshop.
The discussion around the comprehensive plan and the “quid pro quo” by Mayor Norris was then had, with Mayor Norris stating that after speaking with the City Attorney, he wanted to bring the matter up to law enforcement and asked for consensus to table the matter until he had a chance to speak with law enforcement and his attorney. The rest of the council agreed with the mayor on his choice to discuss the matter with law enforcement before bringing it to the dias, due to possible confidentiality and legal repercussions from the party who allegedly made the “quid pro quo”.
The Council then moved on to the ethics complaint discussion, where the City Attorney advised the council that the Ethics Committee did advise out of an abundance of caution, to remove Mr. Danko’s complaint from the City’s Complaint since Danko’s complaint is not yet final. The City Attorney then asked for consensus for any additions or subtractions and a signature from a councilman to move forward. Mayor Norris asked if the City Attorney had received signatures on the statements to ensure that they are now considered sworn statements. Mayor Norris also asked if the City Attorney would redline the statements to see if there were any changes to the statements after they had been signed as sworn. Councilman Sullivan asked that the cover letter include that there was a 4-0 vote of no confidence and censure on Mayor Norris. Vice Mayor Pontieri questioned why they were focused on female clothing and toenail polish, and she would prefer that the report not highlight or minimize any specific behavior. The City Attorney stated that he was only trying to summarize it as best as he could. Mayor Norris said he was fine with anything the Council wanted to do. The consensus to move forward with the complaint and the sworn statements was given to the City Attorney. Pontieri also talked about how Florida DOGE will be coming down, and Councilman Miller did the leg work with the City Manager to ensure that DOGE would be coming down to work with Palm Coast, including an additional assessment. The City Attorney did remind the council that all of the councilmembers need to sign the cover letter, and one councilmember needs to sign Form 50, and Vice Mayor Pontieri agreed to sign the form. City Duffy agreed to look into Mayor Norris’s understanding that members of the City Council could have up to $100,000 to use in the defense of litigation such as an ethics violation. City Attorney Duffy was not aware of that but agreed to look into it.
The City Council then moved on to discuss the litigation regarding the proposed settlement agreement with BBI Construction Management Inc. The details of the confidential settlement had to remain confidential, and the council voted in a 5-0 vote to approve the settlement offer.
Moving on, Jose Papa and Ray Tiner gave a presentation on the Comprehensive Plan, which was being heard for the second time. The Comprehensive Plan would need to be passed again, to move on to the next step of working out the details of the Land Development Code. The discussion centered around the Westward Expansion and Project Magellan. Pontieri and Miller both questioned whether one singular MPD was wise since this plan was supposed to be set up for multiple decades. The potential for commercial and economic growth with this plan is important, according to Pontieri, and she wanted to ensure that the planning would not delay any future economic development. Pontieri and Miller both agreed that draft language would be wise to adjust to ensure that this plan would not hinder any economic growth in the future. Throughout the presentation, the Council made decisions to not take recommended changes from the PLDRB board regarding the Affordable Housing incentives and the Utility Advisory Committee changes. Once voted on the City would have ten days to transmit this Comprehensive plan to the appropriate State Agencies for comments before moving forward. Pontieri made a motion to approve the Comprehensive Plan as is, with the discussed changes including the language to ensure future MPDs follow the criteria as laid out in the new language of the Comprehensive Plan. After public comment, Mayor Norris stated his opinion that he is still not confident in this Comp Plan, and he plans to vote no on this plan, due to “things I have seen since running for office and sitting in this seat.” The motion to approve the Comp Plan passed in a 4-1 vote with Mayor Norris voting no.
The second read for the ordinance prohibiting camping or sleeping on public lands passed unanimously. The Council then took action on the action sending a letter to the State inquiring DOGE to come to Palm Coast. The Council voted unanimously to send the letter to the State inquiring to have DOGE come in. The Council voted on the final plat for the Colbert Landing Development, which passed 4-1 with Mayor Norris being the sole no vote. A consensus was given by the council to have all data provided by the applicant and the city staff for all final plats so that the council can provide a more educated vote.
