Lee Eureste says Councilman Charles Gambaro's criticisms swayed the council unfairly against him.
Saying the city manager selection process was unfair, Lee Eureste, a 28-year military veteran, told the Observer that he’s planning to sue the City of Palm Coast, where his former employee, Mike Norris, is now the mayor.
At Norris’ encouragement, Eureste applied for the job of city manager, but Eureste received no support from the other three City Council members. He has been eliminated from consideration as city manager of Palm Coast.
“I’m trying to find someone, like an Erin Brokovich, someone who wants to take it on,” Eureste said, referring to his attempt to find an underdog attorney to represent him in a lawsuit. “I may not have a case, I don’t know. If I can find somebody, I’m going to do it.”
EURESTE AND NORRIS
Among his career accomplishments, Eureste oversaw three camps within Camp Butler in Okinawa, Japan, from 2016 to 2021. Both Eureste during the Observer interview, as well as Norris during the March 11 City Council workshop, described running Camp Butler as equivalent to running a city.
Eureste first met Norris in graduate school at Webster University, Eureste said, and when Eureste later got the role at Camp Butler, he encouraged Norris to apply to run security, which he did successfully for three years.
Eureste said he also got to know Norris when Eureste was considering moving to Palm Coast, in 2014. He said Norris introduced him to a real estate agent, and Eureste looked at about 30 houses before deciding against moving to Palm Coast.
“What turned me off was it was an HOA,” Eureste said.
Norris has spoken on this subject recently, including in a January interview in which he said, “Palm Coast is not an HOA. … This is a working class community.”
Norris did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Eureste.
THE PROCESS
Eureste was one of 10 semifinalists presented to the City Council at its March 11 workshop. Before the numerical rankings to narrow the list to five, Norris asked if anyone on the council had any reason to preliminarily eliminate any of the candidates.
Consultant Doug Thomas, vice president of Strategic Government Resources, did not immediately respond to a request for clarification about the process. He did not, however, say anything during the meeting to indicate that there was anything wrong with Norris asking his fellow council members’ opinions prior to the ranking.
(Eureste said regardless of SGR’s process, he still wants to file a lawsuit.)
City Councilman Charles Gambaro, who is a retired general, responded to Norris’ invitation and said he didn’t support Eureste, who was a chief warrant officer.
“We’re in the process of hiring an executive,” Gambaro said. Referring to Eureste’s rank, he said, “Warrant officer doesn’t equal executive; it equals technician. That’s my perspective.”
A chief warrant officer is above sergeant, but below lieutenant.
Eureste said Gambaro “muddied the water” against him and that Gambaro should have waited until after the numerical rankings were complete to offer any commentary.
“He swayed the other members’ votes, to knock me out,” Eureste said.
Gambaro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘MANIPULATING’ THE LIST?
Gambaro wasn’t the only one to comment on Eureste before the numerical rankings: Norris himself also commented, in Eureste’s defense.
“I beg to differ with you on Lee Eureste,” Norris said to Gambaro. “Mr. Eureste actually ran a community. I know that for a fact because I worked for him.”
Hearing both Norris’ and Gambaro’s commentary, and after having reviewed his resume and video interview for themselves, both City Councilman Ty Miller and Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri gave Eureste the lowest possible score, 3, as did Gambaro. Norris gave him the highest possible score, 1.
“I just think he’s under qualified,” Pontieri said.
Later in the discussion, Norris proposed adding Eureste back into the top 5.
“But that’s not fair,” Pontieri said, with an incredulous laugh. “If the rankings are going to be reordered, now you have the ability to manipulate the list.”
After the council ultimately agreed to consider the Top 5 only, without Eureste, Norris defended his intentions in advocating for Eureste: “Don’t think that I’m lopsided and I’m trying to pull for my buddy,” Norris said, “like I’m trying to push someone into office.”
