- September 14, 2024
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Only two candidates remain on the ballot for Palm Coast's mayor seat: Mike Norris and Cornelia Manfre.
On Aug. 20, Primary Election Day, Norris led with 31.3% of the vote, with Manfre close behind with 23.7%, knocking current Mayor David Alfin and two others from the race. With just two months before the general election, the Observer sat down with Norris and Manfre to gather their thoughts on the city.
Below, get to know Norris' thoughts on what he thinks needs to change in Palm Coast, the best way to manage growth and what experience he brings to the table.
I think it was already set in my mind when they gave themselves that raise [in 2022], because I consider myself a conservative, and when they gave themselves that raise, I went, “Hold on. You can’t call yourself a fiscal conservative and give yourself 151% pay raise.”
I was taken aback. I’m like, “OK, David Alfin sits on the same Republican Executive Committee as me, and he’s doing this.” I wanted to engage with him. He was supposed to speak one time at the Executive Committee about economic development, and I was going to confront him about that.
I think then is when I decided. And that was the first time I’ve ever stood up in front of the City Council in my life, and I said, “If you pass this pay raise, I’m going to do everything in my power to get every single one of you out of office.” And that’s where we’re at right now: The three remaining members of that City Council that voted for that pay raise — they are out of government right now, and that’s good for our county and our city.
I have people bashing me about serving in the military: “It doesn’t translate well.” Well, most leaders in our country have served in the military, George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, all those people, Gen. Grant. I’m not using my military experience to get a leg up. My military leadership is leadership. Leadership is leadership.
The one thing that makes me stand out, I think, head and shoulders above everyone else, is my experience working on Okinawa as a critical infrastructure and anti-terrorism protection officer. We did improvements to housing, wastewater, electric, fire, rescue, military, police, NCIS — all those investigating arms for civil protection. We did that. Not only that, we had budgets for just infrastructure projects. We ranged from $125 million to $135 million a year in infrastructure projects that I was involved in.
In addition to that, I was the Emergency Operations director. So I managed the Emergency Operations Center for our installation during five major typhoons.
One thing I learned in that job is customer service. You treat everyone equally, and you take care of their needs when they come through this office. You treat everybody with the dignity and respect they deserve, and you handle their issues.
I’m trying to figure out a way I can have people just come to engage with me at City Hall because I’m fully retired. I work at my leisure. My job allows me to work when I want to, and I want to be able to have the citizens come and engage with me personally and say, “Mike, this is my problem.”
Sometimes I may not have an answer. But I certainly can get an answer because I will have a city manager that is accountable for getting answers to the city.
We don’t need to have up zoning the way that the city is laid out. And a lot of people may not agree with this. This may be a little bit controversial, but if you can’t agree with me that ITT poorly planned this city to begin with, then we have a hard place to start from. Palm Coast is very unique in this state. And I think, when they designed it, it was poorly planned. They did it on the cheap. I don’t think I’ve been to any other city in Florida that doesn’t have stormwater management, the sewers and stuff the way they’re supposed to be.
And we’re dealing with these swales and ditches and canals to control our water. No sidewalks, just streets with ditches.
This city cannot sustain itself with just residential housing and small businesses and commercial. You have to provide something that’s tangible, that’s going to pay a higher tax; 93% of our ad valorem tax comes from individual homeowners, and that is very lopsided.
We have to try to get as much land as we can zoned industrial and try to bring those industries in here that are going to provide well-paying jobs, that can help people sustain their lives here.
My biggest concern is that property on the west side. The reason they went through that comprehensive plan review, and they’re pushing all that stuff through is because they have to update the comprehensive plan, to update the land development code to facilitate what the developers want to do.
Those people that have property out there are pushing through what they want to, specifically that one new land designation code to allow them to build houses with detached dwellings.
Find me 10 people in this city that are not real estate agents or developers that has been clamoring for properties to be designated for additional dwellings on a single-family house. Toby Tobin even mentioned the word gentrification just a couple of weeks ago. He said, “We are gentrifying.” So that means people are moving in here that have a higher net worth; they have higher retirement salaries, and they can afford these houses.
It starts at Tallahassee. All these businesses want to relocate to Florida, because we are the free state of Florida. What we have to do is have a proactive approach at the local, county and state level, to entice those businesses.
We’re going to get our infrastructure straight moving forward. I’m not going to be in favor of approving any more residential developments that have to come before the board. Because if it’s less than a certain amount of houses, it doesn’t even have to come to the City Council. I’m in favor of saying, “Hey, hold up, wait a minute.” Because the growth is going to stop. I think everybody, since COVID is on the downside, people are starting to say, “Okay, well, politics are shifting, and I may not want to relocate to Florida.”
So right now, I think, with what’s in the queue right now: Existing homeowners are looking at their property values decreasing, and some of those people that have just moved down here, they are going to find themselves in the same situation me and my family found ourselves in in 2006.
We moved here in 2006; we paid $205,000 for our house. Within three years, our property value was down to $145,000. I couldn’t move my family out of here if I wanted to.
Now, I know we’re going to grow, but we have to have smart growth and designate lands for industrial manufacturing growth, or we’re not going to be able to sustain it. We have people now that are abandoning this city because they can’t afford to live here anymore, plain and simple.
To me, not one penny of the city’s budget would be going towards advertising for people to move the Palm Coast.
I think it's not more about what they want to see, but what they have seen and what they don't want. People are tired of their needs not being met.
We have to meet the needs of the citizens that stand up there every week and complain about what's going on. People have stood up and complained about these subjects for forever, and they're not doing anything about it. I'm more proactive and I want to get those resources down at the level where they need them to fix things in this city that people are not happy with.
