After a slow start, the call for applicants to Palm Coast government’s Charter Review Committee drew 27 candidates by the time the window closed at 5 p.m. this evening, 11 of them over the weekend. The applicants bring a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The council wanted choices. It now has them and then some but for its pronounced boomer skew.
If there is a dearth of variety in one category, it’s age. Almost 30 percent of Palm Coast’s population is 65 and older, and getting older. That’s reflected in the applicants, whose average age is 63, and whose collective age of over 1,700 would stretch back to the dying days of the Roman Empire. In contrast, the average age of the drafters of the U.S. Constitution was 42. The oldest applicant for the charter committee is David Lybarger, a retired landscape contractor who, at 81, is the age Benjamin Franklin was in Philadelphia. Only one applicant is in his 20s, none in the 30s, one is in his 40s, which may limit the charter’s potential for a generational refresher.
Just three applicants are from District 1, the district represented by Council member Ty Miller. More than half the applicants–14–are from District 2, represented by Theresa Pontieri, five are from District 3 (Dave Sullivan) and five from District 4 (Charles Gambaro). But there’s not that much relevance to the breakdown. Each council member and the mayor will make one appointment. It does not have to be from the council member’s district.
Sixteen applicants are registered Republican, seven Democratic and four have no party affiliation. (With a 50 percent majority, registered Republicans in Flagler County outnumber Democrats and independents combined). Palm Coast government and its charter are ostensibly non-partisan, as are most policy matters. All five council members are Republicans. While four of them would not abide his conduct in that regard, Mayor Mike Norris at the last meeting of the local Republican Party railed against Democrats allegedly still wielding influence in the city administration, signaling his intention to underscore his partisan priorities.
With one or two exceptions, the pool appears largely free of the shriller, more zealous loudmouths who, with Norris’s gavel on their side, have frequently turned public-comment segments into verbal muggings of select council members or staffers and bacchanals of conspiracy theories about the city. But this remains an era of surprises in those regards, in Palm Coast more than elsewhere in the county.
The pool of applicants includes four who have been Palm Coast residents before Palm Coast was incorporated in 1999, and one applicant, Lupe Amith, who claims she has been a Palm Coast resident for just one week. She moved here from Indio, a city 125 miles a little less populous than Palm Coast, where she was a five-time mayor and a member of the council. She was also a district manager in the state legislature.
The applicants include former two-term County Commissioner Donald O’Brien, current Mosquito Control District Commissioner Michael Martin, Drainage Committee member Donna Stancel, former Planning Board member Jake Scully, former Bunnel Waste Management and Utilities Director Perry Mitrano, who is also the current chair of the Flagler County Republican Party, Karen Sousa, a 10-year employee of the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections office, and Adrian Calderin, a community development coordinator for Bunnell government and at 25, the youngest applicant by far.
The panel may discuss possibly making future elections district-specific, rather than at-large, as they all are now. Other potential discussions include expanding the council to seven members, and–a certain point of discussion–lifting borrowing limits currently imposed by the charter.
The Palm Coast City Council will appoint the committee on July 15. The city charter calls for a review of the document at least every 10 years. The council decided to move that up by a couple of years. The last review was in 2017. The charter is the city’s constitution, setting out governing principles in broad outlines. The review committee will hold public workshops and conclude its work with recommended amendments to the charter. The council will accept, reject or alter the proposed amendments.
The council may introduce its own amendments as well. It did so ahead of last November’s election, to eliminate a provision in the charter–unusual for most cities–that forbids Palm Coast government from borrowing more than $15 million or entering into long-term leases without a referendum. (The restriction does not apply to funds autonomous from the general fund, like the Utility Department, the garbage and stormwater funds.)
The referendum failed decisively as the city was blamed for writing it deceptively. The referendum did not explicitly state that it was repealing the public’s right to a referendum on large-scale borrowing initiatives. The proposal is very likely to be back on the ballot in one form or another.
The council is also interested in clarifying the language controlling council vacancies. The current language is poor and has demonstrably left the city vulnerable to litigation: its own mayor, Mike Norris, filed suit against his city, challenging the legitimacy of the appointment of Council member Charles Gambaro past last November’s election. The city considers Norris’s lawsuit “frivolous.”
The proposed amendments, if any, would be on the November 2026 ballot. The full pool of applicants is below. Their names are linked to their applications.
Palm Coast Charter Review 2025
| Applicant | District | Highest degree | Years in Palm Coast | Age | Party | |
| Lupe Amith | ||||||
| Greg Blose | ||||||
| Robert Boggess | ||||||
| Adrian Calderin | ||||||
| Rich Cooper | ||||||
| Andrew Dodzik | ||||||
| Jeani Duarte | ||||||
| Ramon Giaccone | ||||||
| Denise Henry | ||||||
| Steven Ludwig | ||||||
| David Lybarger | ||||||
| Ramón Marrero | ||||||
| Michael Martin | ||||||
| Donna McGevna | ||||||
| Georgianne Miller | ||||||
| Patrick Miller | ||||||
| Perry Mitrano | ||||||
| Sheri Montgomery | ||||||
| Donald O'Brien | ||||||
| Anthony Pearson | ||||||
| Chantal Preuninger | ||||||
| Alberto Ritondo | ||||||
| Melissa Roller | ||||||
| Jake Scully | ||||||
| Donna Stancel | ||||||
| Karen Sousa | ||||||
| Brad West | ||||||
Greg says
Looks like a fairly highly educated list. You need to look at the education of each before your selection. Please stay away from any city or county employees. We don’t need any more added to the swamp! Education rules these days
JimboXYZ says
Students of the City Charter for interpretation ? What is each’s agenda. Like Alfin, we had 3.5 years of a Real Estate Industry type approving & swinging at every growth pitch. That left City of Palm Coast at risk for litigation to divert from approvals, rezoning etc.. And when those investigations of special interest were conducted, Alfin was cleared of any guilt for a conflict of interest at the very least. Yet anyone can clearly see that both as mayor & ex-mayor, Alfin is poised & position to capitalize on new & existing real estate sales. Bush era was the Age of Immediate Property Flipping. Obama-Trump-Biden-present the Age of Property Flipping is a 2 year cycle now. Realtor types don’t care about whether you’re happy or not with the home & the politics behind making home ownership unaffordable. Those relative “professionals” assume the sale and that’s someone that has a conflict of interest. A realtor Mayor ? All they have to do is sell another house or two and the increase in the Utility bill is quite affordable. Contrast that with the hourly or salary worker that is required to be a dedicated 1 employer employee. They need a 2nd 8 hour shift of a job. That said, anyone that sits on a Charter Review is going to have their conflicts of interest, special interest input for interpreting, rewriting the city charter. And as litigation is always an option. Risk of lawsuits is going to be a possibility. The Federal laws seem pretty straight forward, look at all the DC Swamp litigation that has happened in the last 5 years. And it’s a matter of the judge any of them had appointed for being in their hip pocket. These aren’t murder trials where evidence & fact determine guilt or innocence. They would be trials where semantics, interpretation of those semantics determines guilt or innocence. Very few of the latter are impartial. Biden-Harris was the weaponization of justice era, that much is obvious. My God, 4 years of Trump eventually standing on the Presidential Immunity concept as a defense. Biden is untouchable for that 4 years of litigation that Trump eventually won. But it took them 4 years to figure it out. And the litigation was real, folks getting paid for interpreting a “slam dunk” of semantics. Presidential Immunity is one of those traffic court proceedings, is it even 3-5 minutes of the details for a defense to be innocent or guilty.
I just don’t see where having a panel of folks reading a City Charter for the 1st time in their lives is going to change business as usual very much for significance. Because certainly, the local lobby will challenge the City Charter, perhaps interpret & rewrite for changes as special interest conflicts of interest. Who knows who, who gets along with another to accomplish a mutual compromise of a City Charter that went thru this same process going back to it’s very core establishment of an ITT inception.
Fernando Melendez says
Good luck to all the applicants, hope the process is quick and we can get our city charter reviewed and changes made. Thank you all for your interest to serve.
jnlocal says
“Verbal muggings”, I love it. But isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?