Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris has filed for a rehearing in relation to a lawsuit he’s filed seeking the removal of City Councilman Charles Gambaro. Norris has alleged that Gambaro’s appointment as an interim Council member last year was made illegally by the previous City Council.
The lawsuit filed by Norris with representation by attorney Anthony Sabatini was first heard on July 3rd by Circuit Judge Chris France. In that hearing, France ruled that Norris’ suit had no legal standing. Norris’ decision to file for a rehearing is not itself an appeal, but it does help check the requisite boxes if Norris did attempt to pursue that route.
Motion for Rehearing
In a motion filed electronically last week, it is alleged that the Declaratory Judgment Act was not adequately invoked by Judge France in his decision against Norris. “This Court did not address why or how it found that Plaintiff lacked standing under Florida’s broadly construed Declaratory Judgment Act,” their filing reads.
The filing asserts that Norris met the legal requirements for standing under the Declaratory Judgment Act, but that he was ruled to not be eligible to bring action at all. France ruled that the only parties who could, in theory, have standing in a suit against Gambaro’s appointment would be Florida’s Attorney General or another individual who was applying for the appointment. Eight other residents applied.
More Legal Expenses for Palm Coast Taxpayers?
Following the first ruling against Norris, he was criticized by his Council colleagues for having unnecessarily cost taxpayers money for the city’s legal defense. The City of Palm Coast is a defendant in Norris’ suit, along with Gambaro himself and the Flagler Supervisor of Elections Office. They alleged, seemingly with substantial backing evidence, that Norris proceeded with the suit even after being advised that he lacked legal standing.
The Council members all indicated they’d like to see Norris reimburse the city for their legal defense costs. He made it clear he would not do so. “Take me to court [for the costs],” he said at a Council meeting earlier in July.
Norris has made differing statements about the costs his lawsuit will ultimately incur from taxpayer dollars. At a town hall he held independently on Monday, Norris said “I don’t want to cost the city any money,” referring to the lawsuit. Earlier this month, he said in a Council meeting that “I don’t care if it costs the city a million dollars if I’m defending our residents’ right to pick their representative”.
Mike Norris vs. Charles Gambaro
L-R: Council members David Sullivan and Charles Gambaro, and City Attorney Marcus Duffy. ⓒ AskFlagler
Since before he was elected, Norris has alleged that Gambaro should not have been appointed after the resignation of former Council member Cathy Heighter. It should’ve been put to a special election, he argues, because over half of Heighter’s term in office remained when she resigned. The Council was advised by their legal counsel that, due to the proximity in time to the ballot deadline, they would be legally justified in appointing instead of holding a special election.
Also fueling the fire is an ongoing professional rivalry between Norris and Gambaro that has turned ugly on more than one occasion. It was Gambaro who first publicly accused Norris of malfeasance, of having tried to illegally fire senior staff members, and of harassing city employees. He also criticized Norris after the mayor posted his personal cell phone number on Facebook, which Norris said he did thinking it was Gambaro’s publicly-known city cell number. He later edited the post.
The City Council has mostly aligned with Gambaro, and most recently has finalized a letter to be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis requesting Norris’ removal from office. Twice they’ve censured the mayor (that had only ever happened to Ed Danko previously), and twice they’ve voted no confidence in his ability to perform his job. Still, as evidenced by Norris’ packed town hall on Monday, he maintains a dedicated coalition of supporters who allege the other Council members are the sources of the problem.
