City Councilman Charles Gambaro brought the accusation to light, saying Norris may be creating a 'toxic work environment' at City Hall.
Updated 11:38 p.m.
The Palm Coast City Council agreed to begin an investigation into the actions of Mayor Mike Norris, after he was accused of attempting to fire Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston and Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo behind closed doors — a violation of city charter.
Councilman Charles Gambaro reported the accusation during his closing comments of the March 11 City Council meeting.
“I have a concern that was brought forward to me yesterday,” he said via phone, as he was absent physically from the workshop. “It has to do with your request for the resignation of our staff. I think it could be a major, major ethics violation.
"And it's my understanding," Gambaro continued, "that it's not the first time that you've tried to directly intimidate, or tried to force the city manger, to fire not only the chief of staff but other members of our senior staff."
Norris’s facial expression and body language showed that he was in disbelief at the accusations. He began to say something, but Gambaro interrupted him, saying he wasn't finished.
"It's also my understanding that you carried out this request after our legal counsel ... advised you multiple times that your requests were inappropriate and in violation of the City Charter.
"I'm also concerned in the manner in which you delivered it, kind of like an Article 15 scenario: 'Hey this is a one-way conversation, and I'm going to ask for your immediate dismissal from your office,' and you basically dismiss them."
By "Article 15," Gambaro was referring to a military term that signifies a commander's ability to issue a punishment without a judicial procedure.
Gambaro then asked Johnston if she could confirm that the conversations took place as Gambaro had described them.
She said simply, “Yes.”
Gambaro continued: “By your actions, Mr. Mayor, I’m really concerned. I like working with you, but you may be creating a toxic work environment that may be disseminating fear and intimidation across our staff that's really working hard.”
He asked the other two members of the City Council to support his request that an independent investigation be conducted.
Before they spoke, Gambaro added that he felt it was his responsibility to bring the accusations to light, as he had learned about them. "Failure to address the concerns when they're brought to you, in my mind, is not an option."
Both Councilman Ty Miller and Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri agreed that an investigation should take place.
Miller stated: "I think it's very concerning, because the charter directly prohibits any member of this council from directing staff decisions that are solely the purview of the city manager."
The charter states that the city manager is responsible for directing staff, and the City Council is forbidden from interfering.
Miller continued: "Directing the city manager without the consensus of the City Council is also a violation of the city charter.
"It's very hard to get past this because my concern is that, if we're not playing by the rules, then they're going to be abused." No matter who breaks the rules, "it's still wrong, fundamentally."
Miller supports an independent investigation. He also called the mayor's actions "blatant violations of the city's charter."
Norris asked to speak next, and Pontieri agreed, although Gambaro had suggested Pontieri speak.
Norris said: "There's three people that were in that room that we had our conversation yesterday, and — how can I put this — I said I was going to discuss with the council, you know, about this. And it's a little bit of frustration, but we are under a lot of pressure, here. Me and Lauren, we had a good conversation today. ... But I certainly didn't do what's being said."
He said he hadn't brought up his conversations with Johnston to the City Council during the March 11 meeting because he didn't see the need.
"We're where we need to be," Norris said, "we're working together, and I think Lauren understood I was a bit frustrated, but I certainly didn't tell her to fire anybody, because I know better than to do that. I would never do that."
With a half shrug, Miller replied: “She just said you did.”
Gambaro said: "Wasn't Mr. DeLorenzo in the meeting, too?"
"Yes," Norris said.
"That's a problem," Gambaro said.
"I said I was going to talk, because of my frustration, to the council," Norris said. "I am an above board kind of guy."
He again denied that he had directed Johnston to fire staff, but Gambaro again responded: "She just confirmed that it happened that way, Mr. Mayor. That's the problem. The other issue you have is that our own counsel is witness."
Norris said he is aware that there are only two positions that he — he corrected himself — that the City Council can hire and fire, referring to the city manager and city attorney positions.
"But, you do what you've got to do," Norris said to Miller and Pontieri. "You want to investigate, you go right ahead."
WHAT'S NEXT?
Details about how an investigation could take conducted will be brought to the council at the next meeting, March 18.
Meanwhile, the City Council is also actively searching for its next full-time city manager; Johnston is filling the position temporarily.
How the investigation of Norris might impact the search remains to be seen.
Earlier in the March 11 meeting, the council was presented with 10 semi finalists, and five were selected as finalists, to be interviewed in person in the coming weeks.
Here are the five, ranked in order from the council's most favored to least:
William (Lee) Smith III, Paul Trombino III, Richard Hough, Sonia Alves-Viveiros and Michael Reese.
Smith received the top score (ranked 1 out of a possible 3, with 1 being the highest) from each of the four members of City Council. He has 23 years of experience as a county manager, first in Washington County, North Carolina (population 11,000), from 1993 to 2001; second of Wayne County, North Carolina (population 119,000), from 2001 to 2014; and third in Chatham County, Georgia (population 300,000), from 2014 to 2023.
Trombino is currently the public works director in Greeley, Colorado (population 109,000), and has also served in leadership positions in the state level in Iowa: director and Homeland Security adviser, chief operating officer, and director of the Department of Transportation.
Hough is currently the director of public works and the county highway commissioner for Walworth County, Wisconsin (population 105,000); he has also held military leadership roles, including Army Element Commander, U.S. Army Africa; senior research fellow; brigade commander; and chief of operations and strategic plans.
Alves-Viveiros received less support from Norris and Gambaro than she did from Pontieri and Miller.
Miller also asked for more time to consider the semifinalists before ranking them, but schedules could not be coordinated to delay the process.
Pontieri pointed out that Alves-Viveiros is the city manager/business administrator of the Township of Edison, New Jersey (population 101,000), which indicates she is experienced with city governing — particularly complicated government accounting.
Pontieri added: “One of her greatest accomplishments was reforming an animal shelter," which is “pertinent to our challenges now.”
Alves-Viveiros also speaks Portuguese and is a working mom.
Reese received low scores from Norris and Gambaro, as well. Reese is currently the city manager of Maplewood, Missouri (population 8,000).
Interviews will begin April 1, with a decision at the end of April.
The city will pay for travel of each candidate, plus one, to visit Palm Coast.
