Palm Coast Mayor Censured in Unanimous 4-0 Vote

In a period spanning Monday evening into Tuesday morning, the Palm Coast City Council entered its most unstable and tumultuous period in years after the results of an ethics investigation into Mayor Mike Norris were released. Norris was accused of malfeasance, inappropriate conduct toward city staff, and attempting to improperly fire employees. In the wake of these results being made public, Councilman Charles Gambaro on Tuesday made a stunning suggestion: he asked that his colleagues on the City Council take a vote of no confidence against Norris, and request that Gov. Ron DeSantis utilize his executive power to remove Norris from office. “His insistence on continuing to bring up past-resolved issues in a negative fashion versus looking towards the future in a collaborative manner with this Council and our residents is not anyone’s example of executive or strategic leadership,” Gambaro said. “In just a very short amount of time in office the mayor has managed to divide this Council, divide our community, and tarnish the image of this great city.” When the City Council formed consensus to launch an independent investigation into Mayor Norris, he was being accused of multiple kinds of inappropriate behavior ranging from profanity to overreach of duty. The investigation was conducted by a Tallahassee-based firm called Lawson, specifically signed to an Adam Lawson. The results were communicated to the City Council and City Attorney Marcus Duffy late last week. Can the Governor Remove a Mayor? This power does indeed lie with Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove a city’s mayor should he choose to exercise it. According to the Florida Statutes, Title X, Chapter 112 (1): “By executive order stating the grounds for the suspension and filed with the Secretary of State, the Governor may suspend from office any elected or appointed municipal official for malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, habitual drunkenness, incompetence, or permanent inability to perform official duties.” Should DeSantis eventually choose to remove Norris, it would be a ground-shaking first in the 26-year history of the City of Palm Coast. The only semi-comparable incident in memory was the resignation of Mayor Milissa Holland in 2021 leading to a special election later that year. Accusations of Trying to Fire City Staff The first major charge against Norris was the attempt to enact the firing of key city staff, including acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo. He was said by four witnesses to have done so unilaterally without the consultation or consent of his Council colleagues. This conclusion was made based on accounts from four witnesses: Norris, Johnston, DeLorenzo, and Duffy. The authority to hire and fire staff is entrusted solely to the city manager with two exceptions: the city manager themselves and the city attorney, both of whom are hired and fired by the City Council. The Palm Coast City Charter explicitly states that “interfering with the performance of the duties of any City employee who is under the direct or indirect supervision of the City Manager or City Attorney” constitutes malfeasance as defined in state law. The results of the Norris investigation state that Norris’ conduct ‘likely meets the definition of interference’. This would, in theory, give Gov. DeSantis cause to remove Norris from office by itself. Accusations of Inappropriate Comments Toward Female Staff Two female employees in particular were named in the investigation as having received inappropriate commentary from Norris regarding their personal appearance. The first was Communications Director Brittany Kershaw, who alleged that Norris called her toenail polish a ‘f-cking trash bag’ color, a comment which was corroborated by one witness. Another accusation came from Human Resources Director Renina Fuller. In this instance Fuller said Norris insulted acting City Manager Lauren Johnston’s outfit, saying that she was wearing a ‘Hillary Clinton pantsuit’. He later said he was joking. The investigation states that these remarks ‘constitute violations of professional standards’. Accusations of Demeaning Comments Toward Communications Staff Norris was further accused of having berated the city’s communications and marketing departments shortly after assuming office. He was said by Kershaw and corroborated by Johnston to have called Palm Coast’s Starlight Parade livestream ‘garbage’ and ‘horsesh-t’, and that he found the entire department unnecessary when he had his own private communications team. He reportedly apologized. Furthermore, multiple other city staff members reported Norris’ behavior toward these departments as ‘combative’ and ‘belittling’. Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill in particular was described as having encouraged his employees to stick out the environment through competence and optimism in order to eventually form a working relationship with Norris. Accusation of Age Discrimination Also reported by HR Director Renina Fuller, Norris was said to have advocated in explicit terms to lower the age of the city staff. He was said to have stated that Palm Coast could save money on healthcare benefits and that he wanted to see older employees with seniority to be released. This was characterized by Fuller as ‘clearly violating non-discrimination standards’. Norris’ conduct was not found to have constituted age discrimination in literal terms. The investigation stated that it could, however, open the city up to lawsuits. Norris himself said his comments on the costs of healthcare benefits were not a directive to city staff. Accusations of Profanity and Intimidation Several employees stated in the investigation that Norris frequently used profanity and tactics of verbal intimidation within his professional capacity. Johnston, Kershaw, and multimedia associate Patrick Appolonia witnessed him saying he wanted to ‘choke out’ a developer in the community. Johnston, Berryhill, and Deputy Communications Director Ray Tyner stated Norris asked that a developer be barred from entering City Hall. Jason DeLorenzo reported Norris uses profanity and threats toward staff, ‘creating a culture of intimidation’. These and other anecdotes have largely been rebutted by Norris as being exaggerated, misinterpreted, or inaccurately described. “I want to be clear: I did not demand resignations,” Norris said as stated in the report. “City Attorney Marcus Duffy was on the phone during the conversation and may have assumed I was demanding they resign. That was not my intent. […] I requested their resignations, but I did not demand them […] As the Mayor, I believe I have the right to request a resignation when I lose confidence in a staff member.”