- November 23, 2024
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Citing time constraints limiting a fair democratic process, the Palm Coast City Council has made the decision to appoint a replacement council member for the city’s District 4 seat.
City Council District 4 representative Cathy Heighter resigned her seat on Aug. 19, effective Aug. 23, with over two years of her term — that would have ended November 2026 — remaining. According to the Palm Coast City Charter, if a seat becomes vacant within the first two years of a term, the empty seat will be filled by appointment through a majority vote of the remaining council members within 90 days of the vacancy.
But the charter also states that if the seat becomes vacant within six months of “a regularly scheduled election” the remaining council “may delay the appointment” to be decided at that election.
I don't want our city council seat to be bought."
— THERESA CARLI PONTIERI, Palm Coast Council member
Heighter resigned between the primary and general elections. To make it on the ballot for Nov. 5, candidates would need to qualify before Sept. 6. Because of the short timeline, that means candidate petitions would not be accepted for qualifying. The alternative is to pay the qualifying fee of $3,249 — 10% of the seat’s salary — and the 1% assessment fee of $324.
“I don't want our city council seat to be bought,” Council member Theresa Carli Pontieri said. “…My concern is that if we require people to pay $3,500 in a week's time, we are allowing the seat to be bought by special interests, and that I have a real issue with.”
The council voted 4-0 on Aug. 27 to appoint the two-year replacement for the seat, following a one-month application and interview process. By the end of business on Aug. 27, the city posted the appointment application online.
The application for the seat will be open until end of business on Sept. 11, and then a special workshop will be held on Sept. 17, immediately following the regularly schedule 9 a.m. Sept. 17 council meeting, for the first interviews.
On Sept. 24, the council will hold another workshop meeting, this one in the evening, where the applicants will also be discussed there. At the Oct. 1 evening City Council meeting, the council will appoint a person from the applicants to fill the seat.
An appointed council member would fill the District 4 seat until November 2026 and then have the ability to run for the office. Some residents in attendance at the meeting did not like the idea of the appointment — made when three of the four remaining council members will be leaving their seats in November — would sit in the seat for two full years.
“I think that the people are entitled to make this choice, not, for all intents and purposes, a lame-duck City Council,” City Council District 3 candidate Ray Stevens.
But, City attorney Marcus Duffy said, the charter does not say anything about a special election.
“It says the next regularly scheduled election,” he said. “So, it would be my advice that a special election, unfortunately, is not an option. I wish it was.”
I think that the people are entitled to make this choice, not, for all intents and purposes, a lame-duck City Council."
— RAY STEVENS, Palm Coast District 3 candidate
This is contrary to the city’s history: Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin was elected in 2021 via a special election in July. According to records from the Supervisor of Elections Office, that special election cost Palm Coast and taxpayers $127,000.
Stevens, and several other Palm Coast residents, suggested adding the special election to the March election, which has elections for Bunnell, Flagler Beach and Beverly Beach, to reduce the cost. But, according to an email from Election Supervisor Kaiti Lenhart, that may not reduce the cost.
“All municipalities pay for their own elections (special or regularly) if they are not held concurrently with the countywide and statewide schedule in even-numbered years,” Lenhart wrote.
Palm Coast’s council elections are only held in August and November, the primary and general elections, and staggered to every two years to fall in the even-numbered years.
One of the qualifying conditions to fill the seat is that the applicant must live in District 4. Pontieri urged residents, particularly District 4 residents, to participate in the process in everyway possible, from attending meetings to sending emails and speaking with their neighbors.
“Make this the democratic process I want it to be, even though we are appointing somebody,” she said.
