Last Updated: 1:51 p.m.
Circuit Judge Chris France on Thursday signed the judgment against Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris, who had filed suit to have the court remove fellow Council member Charles Gambaro and order a special election.
France ruled on the matter at the end of a 50-minute hearing last July 3 with Norris in attendance. The written judgment spells out the ruling and closes the case, unless Norris appeals.
His reaction to the ruling suggests he will seek to change the wording of the charter rather than appeal. “This outcome has highlighted a deeper issue that needs resolved. Our city charter must be revised,” he wrote on his Facebook page after the ruling, pledging to “to fight against special interests, to take a stand for transparency.” (He has blocked FlaglerLive from the page, which appears to be illegal since he uses it to communicate city business with residents.)
The judgment concluded that Norris had no standing to sue. He could only do so if he had been delegated the authority to do so from the Florida Attorney General, which he did not, or if he himself had a claim to the District 4 seat occupied by Gambaro, which he did not. On that count alone, Norris’s claim for declaratory and injunctive relief failed, the order states.
“Even if Plaintiff had standing, which he does not,” the court ruled, “the passage of essential election deadlines prior to Heighter’s resignation and the proximity of the resignation to the general November 5, 2024, election thereafter, created a logistical impossibility of placing District Seat 4 on the November 2024 ballot. Accordingly, under the facts of this case, the next “regularly scheduled election” for District Seat 4 as contemplated by the Palm Coast City Charter was November 2026.”
Norris contended that while the council had the authority to appoint Gambaro after Cathy Heighter resigned in August 2024, the Gambaro appointment should have not gone past the Nov. 5 election, and that the council should have held an election for the seat on that day. He based his argument on the charter. The charter is poorly written on that score, leaving room for interpretation.
Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart had made clear at the time that logistically, there was little time for a special election, and no time for candidates to qualify by petition and avoid paying a qualifying fee of over $2,000. The deadline for a final list of candidates was Sept. 6. “That is an absolute deadline,” Lenhart wrote FlaglerLive in August, “our testing procedures must be completed before the Federal deadline to mail ballots to overseas civilians and overseas uniformed service members by September 21.”
Heighter’s resignation became effective Aug. 23. The council discussed adding an election to the ballot but opted for an appointment. It could not have held a special election past Nov. 5. A special election “is not contemplated by the Charter for vacated Council seats,” the judge’s ruling reads. “The City’s Charter only allows for special elections when the Mayor’s seat is vacated or there is a recall.”
The city was represented by Rachael Crews of the GrayRobinson law firm. Crews drafted the order. City Attorney Marcus Duffy said Norris’s lawsuit, filed in May, will cost the city around $30,000. Gambaro sought to have Norris pay the fee. Norris said he will not, and said from the dais that he didn’t care if he “cost the city a million dollars.”
The independent investigation of Norris the city conducted at the council’s request, which found him to have violated the charter, among other misconduct, cost $15,000. Norris on Tuesday said he will seek reimbursement from the city for the money he is spending to defend against an ethics complaint the council filed against him, subsequent to the investigation and the council approving a unanimous censure of the mayor, and a vote of no-confidence in him. Norris conceded unanimity by being absent from that meeting.
Norris’s surprisingly measured tone in the immediate aftermath of the July 3 ruling may have been a fluke. In Facebook post today, he called Gambaro–a former member of President Trump’s national security staff, in 2017–a DEI (Didn’t Earn It) Hire,” dismissed the judge’s ruling, saying that the seating of Gambaro had “disenfranchised more than 60,000 residents of Palm Coast,” and ridiculing France’s ruling, added, “Sorry, that dog doesn’t hunt in these neck of the woods.”
He then posted Gambaro’s personal cell number in retaliation for Free For All Fridays Host (and Flagler Broadcasting President) David Ayres this morning asking listeners courteously to text their support of or opposition to Norris on his cell phone. The difference is that Ayers provided Norris’s city-issued phone, not his personal number.
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