Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris on Tuesday was accused of attempting to initiate the firing of multiple high-level city staff members in a manner that would violate the city charter. Councilman Charles Gambaro, attending Tuesday’s workshop via phone, said that Norris had tried to ask acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo for their resignations, in what would be a major overstep of his mayoral authority.
According to Gambaro, Norris had not only tried to initiate these firings but had done so after being advised not to by the city’s legal counsel. Gambaro said it was not his first time doing so. The hiring and firing of city staff, with the exception of the city manager and the city attorney, is under the sole authority of the city manager. Even if Norris wished to broach the topic of firing a department head, his ability to do so would be limited to bringing up that employee in more vague terms during a meeting.
Norris strongly denied having tried to tell Johnston to fire city staff, saying he knew better than to do so. Johnston herself had confirmed just minutes earlier that Norris had in fact done so according to Gambaro’s description. Both other Council members, Ty Miller and Theresa Carli Pontieri, strongly rebuked the actions described. “We’re working together, and I think Lauren understood I was a bit frustrated,” Norris said. “But I certainly didn’t tell her to fire anybody, because I know better than to do that. I would never do that.”
L-R: Councilman Charles Gambaro and City Attorney Marcus Duffy. ⓒ AskFlagler
“I think it’s very concerning,” Miller said. “The [city] charter directly prohibits any member of this council from directing staff decisions that are solely the purview of the city manager.” Norris contested that the appointment of Gambaro by the prior City Council was itself a charter violation, though this did not seem to be an effective deflection.
Moving forward, an independent investigation into Norris’ actions appears to have reached consensus to move forward. Norris himself invited this to happen, maintaining throughout that he did not commit wrongdoing. He declined to comment further when reached by text message Tuesday night.
Gary Kunnas
March 12, 2025 at 3:39 pm
Loren Johnson is a temp replacement for city manager. I believe Has no back bone for the job. There are many that need to go on city staff. Having jobs with no background training for them . I believe Jayson DeLorenzo was given the job by Holland with no background for it. No formal training. He knew a lot of builders. Like Carl Cote who was given a job by Holland with no formal training for it because he was on the board of builders. Both have caused a lot of issues for home owners with there blundering a long. The higher houses and run off. Jayson in the Observer told the home owners in the lower houses they would have to fix the run offs from the higher houses themselves. There was a requirement to get a permit for installing sod on your property. This was to make sure you were not higher then your neighbors from run off. This was totally ignored by both. Their incompetence has caused the tax payers a lot. The golf course is a good example of Jayson’s. Ever since the city bought the course it has costed the tax payers 1 million per year hidden in the maintained budget. Jayson takes over and the lost jumps to 3.5 million. This was in Flagler live. He couldn’t even run his T shirt business. Bankrupt. I believe all of the above is true based on info from people close to the situation and info. Jayson had an outsider come in at a council meeting and state the swales were affected by the king tides. How would that be unless the canal water was up in the swales. Yes the pipes going into canals would slow drainage with the higher water level, but the input into the drain pipe being higher then the canal would still flow into the canals not back flow to the streets. This was done to cover up their incompetence of the swale system . We need to clean house of deadwood. 625 employees ? Every time there is a big job it is sourced out. We have the equipment and man power to do our own work. Why is it out sourced ? What are city workers doing ? It’s time to clean things up and stream line .