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Norris claims that City Councilman Gambaro, who helped launch an investigation against Norris, is serving 'illegitimately.'
As the political divisiveness deepens on the Palm Coast City Council, Mayor Mike Norris has doubled down on his claim that Charles Gambaro is not legally a member of the City Council.
“Any votes that that gentleman makes is illegitimate,” Norris said in a March 16 interview, posted to YouTube on March 20 by Flagler County Buzz. “Any motions he makes, anything he does, is illegitimate.”
Gambaro said Norris, who is now under investigation for potentially breaking the City Charter by interfering with staff, is deflecting for political purposes.
Norris’ isolation has grown in recent weeks. He was the only council member to vote for a residential building moratorium, the only member to oppose the utility upgrades, and was also singled out by the council to be investigated.
Also, in lieu of a City Council meeting on March 25, the rest of the council traveled to Tallahassee to advocate for city interests; but Norris stayed behind — something that former City Councilman Ed Danko called "a borderline dereliction of duty."
Norris said he wasn't going to Tallahassee because he didn't want to spend the city's money, that he had "some other stuff" to do, and, referring to the other City Council members: "They can handle it."
Meanwhile, some residents continue to rally around Norris on social media and at City Council meetings, saying he is the one who is truly listening to them.
‘ILLEGITIMATE’?
Norris isn’t the only one who sees Gambaro’s role on the City Council as being illegitimate.
Ken Nasif, a member of the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee, as well as being a retired associate justice of the Massachusetts Trial Court (1983-2006), interprets the Palm Coast City Charter the same way as Norris does.
Although Nasif said he has nothing against Gambaro, he is concerned that if the situation isn’t rectified, it could leave the city open for legal challenges.
“What’s gone on here is wrong,” Nasif said, “and everybody is looking the other way.”
When asked on March 25 whether he would support getting another legal opinion to clarify the validity of his place on the City Council, as Norris has requested, Gambaro said:
“Absolutely not. The council made a decision [in 2024] based on legal advice, and the charter supports the decision of the council to determine how they move forward with the appointment.”
Gambaro said the comments are merely “a political campaign by a mayor who appears to have violated the charter.”
WHAT DOES THE CHARTER SAY?
Gambaro was appointed to fill a vacancy caused by the Aug. 23, 2024, resignation of then-City Councilwoman Cathy Heighter.
Heighter’s resignation was within the first two years of her term, which leads to this portion of the charter: Article IV(7)(e)1 states that if “a vacancy occurs in the office of any Council seat within the first two years of a term, the office shall be filled by appointment within 90 days […] by majority vote of the remaining Council members.”
If the next regularly scheduled election is less than six months away, the council “may delay the appointment,” according to the charter.
The charter continues: “Such appointments shall last until the next regularly scheduled election, at which time the seat shall be declared open and an election held for the remaining two years of the original term, thus continuing the original staggering of district seats.”
WHAT WAS THE LEGAL ADVICE?
In an August 2024 letter to Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston, City Attorney Marcus Duffy interpreted the charter this way:
“Since Council Woman Heighter (District 4) resigned with more than 2 years left in her term, City Council has 90 days to appoint someone to fill the remaining 2 years of the District 4 seat.”
Hence, Gambaro was appointed on Oct. 1, 2024. The vote was 3-1; the three votes in favor were by David Alfin, Nick Klufas and Ed Danko, all of whom are no longer on the council.
The assumption of the City Council at the time was that Gambaro's appointment would last for the rest of Heighter’s term, through November 2026. But Nasif maintains that the appointment can only last until the next regularly scheduled election, which was Nov. 5, 2024.
In a phone interview with the Observer, Nasif said of Gambaro: “He’s acting as if he has the powers of a city councilman, and he doesn’t have them."
‘REGULARLY SCHEDULED ELECTION’
Heighter's resignation came at an unusual time: after the August primary, at a time when it wasn’t practical for anyone to run to be elected by the voters on Nov. 5, 2024, to fill her vacated seat.
In that light, on Dec. 5, 2024, Duffy said to Norris via email: “The next regularly scheduled election was already in progress with the primary being completed and preparing for the General Election. The Charter is silent on what to do when the next general election is in progress.”
The definition of the “next regularly scheduled election” is therefore at the heart of the varying interpretations.
Duffy’s letter indicates that, because the primary had already passed, he believed the Nov. 5 election was not a regular election.
The charter does not have a definition of a “regularly scheduled election,” but it does address the “schedule of regular elections” in Article VII(4): “The regular City election shall be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each even-numbered year.”
Therefore, Nasif believes, on the election on Nov. 5, 2024, since no one had been able to run for the seat and be elected, the seat would become vacant, and the the City Council must then make another appointment to fill out the final two years of the term.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Norris has advocated for the city to revisit the situation for months. He even called Gambaro an “unelected imp” during the March 18, 2025, city meeting, after Gambaro had opposed Norris’ former boss as a potential city manager candidate.
Dennis McDonald, who has been a candidate many times for city and county offices, never being elected, also has been vocal on the issue.
On Nov. 19, 2024, in the meeting in which Norris was sworn in, McDonald made a public comment, accusing the former City Council of violating the charter by appointing Gambaro for more than two years.
“We have to do something about this,” McDonald said. “You can’t move forward with a City Council that is living with a false move made by three guys who were voted out by the voters in August.”
Nasif agrees. Referring to Gambaro, he said: “In my humble opinion, the easiest thing to do would be for him to quietly step aside and let him run again.”
Norris has shown no indication that he will let the matter drop.
"I'm right, and I can't change the fact that I'm right," Norris said in an interview with the Observer. "I’m not going to back down from it because he shouldn’t be in that seat."
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