Palm Coast Council’s Five Charter Review Picks Reflect Politics and Experience, Not Diversity

The Palm Coast City Council today appointed five residents–five men, four white, one Hispanic–to the Charter Review Committee, along with five alternate members, out of 27 applicants.

The council’s choices reflect some appointments with an eye to politics and some to experience. The appointments include former two-term County Commissioner Donald O’Brien and current East Mosquito Control District board member Michael Martin. O’Brien especially has deep familiarity both with governance and parliamentary procedures, as well as the difference between charters and ordinances.

Each council member made two appointments. They were as follows:

• Mayor Mike Norris: Patrick Miller (alternate: Chantal Preuninger)
• Ty Miller: Michael Martin (alternate: Donna Stancel).
• Theresa Pontieri: Perry Mitrano (alternate: Donna McGevna).
• Dave Sullivan: Donald O’Brien (alternate: Karen Sousa).
• Charles Gambaro: Ramon Marrero (alternate: Greg Blose).

Mitrano chairs the Republican Executive Committee and was a past director in the Bunnell city administration. Marrero in 2022 founded the Hispanic American Cultural Society of Palm Coast and has worked with the Knights of Columbus of Flagler Beach since 2012. Miller is retired from a career in government and the private sector, with brief service as Flagler County’s growth management director a decade and a half ago.

The city is hiring a consultant to steer the committee. The committee has not yet scheduled its public workshops, the first of which would take place in August. It is expected to hold at least four (one in each of the city’s districts) and to draft proposed amendments.

The proposals are not binding. The City Council will have to approve them before they are placed on the 2026 general election ballot.  The council may edit the proposals, eliminate them altogether, or draft its own. Mayor Mike Norri has raised issues with amendments going to that ballot. He said last week that referendums should be held only in presidential election cycles, which would delay proposals to 2028. He does not appear to have any support among other council members. “We need to get these charter amendments sooner rather than later,” Council member Theresa Pontieri said today.

At least two sections are certain to be proposed for rewrites. “It has too much subjectivity in it and needs some more specifics,” Council member Dave Sullivan said.

The committee will propose rewriting the language controlling appointments of council members or the mayor in case of resignations or other reasons for a seat being vacated.  Though rewritten once previously, the language remains vague. It was at the heart of the controversy Norris constructed around the appointment of Council member Charles Gambaro last August. Norris claimed the appointment’s term past last November’s election was illegal, and sued to have Gambaro removed and a special election called. A judge ruled against Norris on all counts. But the wording of the charter was not blameless.

The committee is also certain to take up the language of the charter that restricts the city’s ability to enter into long-term leases or borrow more than $15 million. The council placed a proposed charter amendment on last November’s ballot. It failed, as the amendment itself was poorly written and seemed deceptive.

The committee may also consider expanding the council from five to seven members, or going to a strong-mayor model that would give the mayor the authority of a city manager, though neither proposal–especially the latter–appears to have support.

The charter is the city’s constitution. Its first version was written in 1999 at the time of the city’s incorporation. It has seen a few amendments since, but the city appointed a charter review committee only once before, in 2017. It was not quite an appointment: the council appointed itself and went through a facilitated process that resulted in three proposed amendments, all uncontroversial, all approved by voters.