- September 21, 2024
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Former Palm Coast Mayor candidate Alan Lowe has filed an injunction in the Flagler County court system to remove the Palm Coast Charter Amendment from the Nov. 5 ballot.
An anonymous source sent the Observer a copy of the injunction request, which was filed on Sept. 20. According to the court documents, the injunction lists the city of Palm Coast and Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart as the defendants, against Lowe, who has contracted with attorneys Douglas Burnett from the St. Johns Law Group and Jay Livingston from Livingston & Sword P.A.
Lowe was one of five candidates in the 2024 Palm Coast mayor race, but lost in the primary election with just 13% of the vote.
Lowe’s lawsuit requests the Charter Amendment be removed from the Nov. 5 ballot. Because the election is just over six weeks away, it also requests an accelerated hearing.
The lawsuit states the “Charter Amendment omits vital information and is unclear and misleading to voters.”
The Charter Amendment is to remove Article VI section (3)(e) of the Palm Coast City Charter. That section outlines limitations on the city’s borrowing power, specifically limiting the city to only borrowing up to $15 million at a time and prohibiting it from entering a lease-payment contract that is longer than 36 months.
If the city wanted to enter into agreements greater than or for longer terms than those outlined in (3)(e), it would require the approval of Palm Coast residents via a referendum vote.
Removing section (3)(e) would allow the city, with City Council approval, to enter into public private partnerships, increase its borrowing power and extend the amount of time the city can be in a lease agreement, without a referendum vote.
The lawsuit alleges the ballot summary of the amendment is misleading to voters and violates Florida Election Code 101.161, which requires ballot language be “clear and unambiguous.” It states the Charter Amendment is misleading because it says that it is updating provisions for the City Council’s ability to enter into contracts but is actually removing provisions without replacement limitations.
According to the lawsuit, the amendment also removes the necessity for a voter referendum on approving city contracts but the language of the ballot does not make it clear that the referendum voting power of residents is being removed.
Should the election date come up before a decision in the court case is made, the lawsuit requests a permanent and temporary injunction to prevent the listed defendants from counting or certifying the results of the Charter Amendment vote, and, in the event the amendment passes in November, asks the injunction nullify the results of the election should the amendment passes.
The lawsuit also seeks to prohibit Palm Coast from submitting the Charter Amendment on any future Palm Coast election ballots.
Neither Lowe nor his listed attorneys could be reached for comment in time for this publication.
The Palm Coast City Council first approved a Charter Amendment vote to remove the section in June. Council members Ed Danko and Theresa Carli Pontieri requested the language be changed to be clearer after the first reading of the amendment. Staff made changes to the language, and the ballot language was approved by the council.
Then in August, and again at the Sept. 3 council meeting, Danko motioned to remove the amendment from the ballot. He said at the time that he changed his mind and has repeatedly called the language in the amendment “deceptive and fraudulent.”
Danko’s first motion died without a second, but the second motion tied in a 2-2 vote, with Pontieri voting with Danko to remove the amendment from the ballot. Motions need a majority vote, not just a tie, to pass.
According to the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections website, ballots for overseas and military voters are sent out 45 days ahead of an election. When the injunction was filed on Sept. 20, there were 45 days left until the Nov. 5 election.
