Less than 24 hours after he posted a sepia-colored “WANTED” poster of himself, thumbing his nose at his critics, Palm Coast Mayor this morning held his two interviews with prospective city manager candidates in the City Hall parking lot, standing by his truck–and forcing the two candidates to do likewise.
The first interview, with Richard Hough, was at 8 a.m. The interview with Paul Trombino was at 8:30. Norris waited for Hough at the entrance to City Hall, standing in the early morning sun while scrolling through his phone until Hough pulled up in an SUV and introduced himself.
The two then walked to Norris’s truck on the side of City Hall’s Community Wing–recently renamed the Jon Netts Community Wing, for the former mayor, who was likely rolling in his grave at his successor’s conduct–and started interviewing. They did so in the half hour highly trafficked by morning employees arriving for work, backing and beeping into parking spots, slamming doors, and walking by. And they did so in the morning’s increasing heat.
Inside the building, city staffers and officials, along with Doug Thomas, the vice president of SGR, the recruiting firm shepherding the city’s manager search, discussed the stunt in disbelief (without calling it a stunt).
Thomas had spoken with Norris, who told him that he’d be gone as soon as his two half-hour interviews were over, as he had another commitment. It wasn’t clear at that point whether he would show up for the 1 p.m. interviews when the candidates were to appear before the full council in the open, public session. But he did, and chaired the meeting. (There was no small talk between him and the council members as they waited for the clock to strike 1, though Norris bantered briefly with two people in the audience.)
Asked by a reporter why he’d held his interviews outside, Norris said he had no comment. It was the latest beguiling behavior by a mayor who shocked the audience at the State of the City Address earlier this month when he drew a bleak portrait of City Hall and made accusing and conspiratorial allegations about staffers and developers, calling it all a “swamp.” He had just cleared his office at City Hall. He was a no-show at last Tuesday’s meeting, when he was censured, taking to Facebook instead after 36 hours of silence.
The tailgate interview was the latest stunner.
“It shows a total lack of understanding the position he’s in and what his responsibilities are,” City Council member Dave Sullivan said. “I’ve said publicly what I think, and I’m going to stick to that. And I think the fact of doing the interviews in the parking lot shows a continuation of what we said about it.”
Sullivan was referring to last Tuesday’s meeting when the council approved a pair of motions by Council member Charles Gambaro to censure Norris and express the council’s no-confidence in him, and to forward a complaint to the Florida Ethics Commission about Norris’s recent conduct. The votes were the result of an independent investigation that found Norris to have violated the charter when he demanded the resignation of the city’s top two executives, along other issues.
Thomas before the interviews briefed the candidates on recent developments in the city, at least to give them context, though the candidates were likely well aware: in their one-on-one interviews with other council members, four of which FlaglerLive attended, they made clear that they’d kept up with city issues through media reports. They are aware of the turmoil they’re stepping into.
In her one-on-one, Council member Theresa Pontieri asked the question on the lips of anyone who’s been paying attention to the manager search–its concurrence with constant controversies, its dearth of candidates and the erosion of finalists from the original five just two: “Why are you still here?” Sullivan asked the question less directly.
Their answers encapsulated quite a bit of their character.
“I would say this: If I was coming here, and you guys said: you know, the organization, we feel like we just want you to dress the curtains, I would say I’m the wrong person,” Trombino said. “That is not where I want to be. I like to improve things. Okay, I love process improvement, and I am confident that we can be better, right? I’m not advocating they’re bad, either. That’s a lot of times what people convey. I am confident we can improve the process. I love that. I like to fix things. I’m not advocating it’s broken. But I actually believe that we can make improvement. So the things that I have seen excite me.” He added: “If it was the opposite, I would not be sitting here.”
Trombino had not yet experienced his stand-up interview with Norris, who at that time was interviewing with Hough. When Hough interviewed with Sullivan in late morning, his answer was wryly informed by what had happened earlier.
“Some of that has to do with the contentious politics as I’ve been getting it told today,” Hough said. “Different perspectives have been coming up today, though, on that. And I would say this: The environment doesn’t intimidate me. I’m fearless when it comes to, you know–and maybe this comes from being a military officer, you know, you’re putting in all kinds of different environments, and sometimes you’re only given command for like, 18 months. So you’ve got to make a difference, right? So you’ve got to go in, find the current environment, what’s it like, where do you want to go? And really, the conversation I want to have deeper beyond today’s events is, where do you really want to go?”
Norris’s participation in today’s interviews at least suggests that he has no intention of resigning. It may also be an indication of his attempt to gauge whether one of the two candidates might help him carry out an agenda his City Council colleagues have decidedly thwarted.
“I think the staff should be concerned, because some of those people on that staff shouldn’t be there,” Norris had said in an Oct. 18 interview on WNZF. “I can’t hire and fire. But we do have a new city manager coming in. We’re going to hire a new city manager, and my push is an external hire. I don’t want anyone from this county taking that position. I want someone with the experience and expertise that can lead a city of this size, and I’m looking for an external hire. I don’t want anyone that’s in this county that’s beholden to developers or real estate industry or anybody else in the powers that be in this county that has been affected, that’s run us into the ground for the past 20, 25 years. So that’s that’s my stance.”
