Palm Coast Coast City Council member Ed Danko has since late August made clear, in votes and statements, his staunch opposition to a proposed charter amendment that would remove borrowing limits on Palm Coast government. He’s called the wording of the proposal “deceptive.”
Less clear until now has been his involvement in all but orchestrating a lawsuit filed against the city in an attempt to nullify the referendum.
Dozens of texts Danko exchanged with Jeani Duarte, a Palm Coast resident who was willing to be the plaintiff in a lawsuit, show to what extent Danko was strategizing against the measure, predicating at least one council vote’s outcome on a lawsuit, discussing lawyers, seeking information from his potential recruit and advising her on what not to say once the lawsuit was filed.
Duarte ended up not being the recruit: she didn’t like the way she felt controlled, she said in an interview, and filed her own suit against the measure, though it was immediately tossed out. Danko’s friend, Alan Lowe, ended up filing the lawsuit in September. Danko has continued to battle against the ballot proposal and was part of a closed-door meeting of the council (also called a “shade meeting”) where the council discussed whether and how to contest the lawsuit. It decided to contest it. Danko’s involvement on both sides of the fence is raising questions about the propriety of the dual role.
“You do get involved in things when you’re an elected official, but there’s nothing bad about that,” Danko said, refuting any suggestion that he orchestrated the lawsuit. “No. I was involved in having conversations about the lawsuit. I never recommended an attorney to anyone, and I never was going to pay for anyone.” He said he was surprised when Lowe ultimately filed: people talk about suing, but don’t always follow-through, he said. Lowe did. Danko is not financing it, he said (“I’m not spending a penny”), and doesn’t know how Lowe is doing so. “I had nothing to do with that whatsoever. I just didn’t. I just don’t know what else to tell you. People have conversations all the time.”
To City Council member Theresa Pontieri, an attorney who has sided with Danko on one vote to pull the referendum from the ballot, then reversed in a subsequent vote, Danko’s involvement is a “blatant” conflict of interest that “definitely crosses that line.” Danko, she says, has “betrayed the trust of the residents of Palm Coast.” (Danko’s term ends in November.)
From a council standpoint, Pontieri said after hearing a summary of Duarte’s statements and texts with Danko, “this is a blatant violation of our oath of office, and it’s concerning that we had a council member in a shade meeting regarding a settlement offer from the other side, when it appears that Councilman Danko was essentially on both sides, if he is, in fact, the person or part of the group that was filing this lawsuit, working towards filing this lawsuit, and was strategizing with that side, and then concurrently being on the side of Council and the side of the people. And he’s supposed to be representing the city of Palm Coast and the residents in a shade meeting, making decisions, presumably not based on what he thinks is best for the city, but based on what he thinks is best for the plaintiff in that lawsuit. That’s a blatant conflict of interest, and it’s very concerning.”
Pontieri doesn’t contest Danko’s right to maintain his stance against the ballot measure in votes and opinions or other forums. Any degree of involvement in a lawsuit against the city, however, is a different matter. Danko’s interactions with Duarte in his attempts to recruit her leave little doubt that Danko was doing more than speaking his mind, at times referring to “our attorney,” “our legal case,” “our legal efforts,” to the way “we will kill this in court,” or including himself in the group seeking to go to court.
A Palm Coast resident for eight years, Duarte is retired (she’d owned a bakery) and remains a certified fitness nutrition specialist who recently joined Citizens on Patrol (or COP). She’d come to know Lowe, the former mayoral candidate, when Lowe had done some remodeling in a condo she and her husband were selling. He interested her in the charter amendment issue. She started going to council meetings in late August. Her first texts with Danko are from Aug. 27. “I was tripping out,” she said, recalling when she heard the council discuss the charter amendment. “I was like, Oh, something sounds fishy here.”
Lowe four days later invited her to his podcast. The subject was the referendum question. Danko was also at the mic: “Alfin bonds are the next battlefield,” Danko said, thanking Duarte for seconding his motion to take the referendum off the ballot (Duarte had done so from the floor in an obvious, but humorous, violation of decorum; the motion failed). She had her reservations about the podcast: “They’re kind of like controlling the situation, controlling the narrative,” she said of Lowe and Danko.
Either soon before or soon after the podcast (Duarte isn’t certain about the timeline), Duarte and her husband went to Mezzaluna restaurant at European Village with Danko and his girlfriend.
“So he says, ‘Look, Janie, I can offer you an attorney pro bono,'” Duarte says Danko told her. “He says, ‘I can’t do it, but I need a citizen to do it.’ He says, ‘because I’m in a seated position that I cannot do this.’ And I’m like, yeah, hey, I’ll help out, whatever I can. And we paid for dinner that night. My husband and I paid for our dinner that night. And I was like, Yeah, okay. So he said, ‘Okay: so the attorney will contact you.'”
Danko mentioned Jay Livingston and “a couple of other names” as attorneys, Duarte said. Livingston would end up being one of the two attorneys representing Lowe.
Days passed and no call came. Duarte then issued what she calls a “demand letter” to the council, which she submitted at a meeting before walking out. Danko was texting her “Good job” from the dais, she said, and reminding her that the attorney would be contacting her.
Exchanges between Danko and Duarte, which began before the recording of the podcast on Aug. 31 and stretched into September, document copious interactions about the potential lawsuit.
“I’ve not heard from any attorney as of yet,” Duarte texts Danko the evening of Aug. 30. My husband is already on his way to Georgia. I’m on standby if needed.” Danko tells her that “David Butler will be speaking to the two attorneys Tuesday and then you will be contacted.” Three days later, Danko texts Duarte: “Please text me your full address. Our attorney needs to send you a letter.” (Emphasis added.)
She texts Danko about blocking Pontieri in July 2022. “I don’t blame you,” Danko tells her, and in the same text: “Can you email me a very brief bio for our attorney? very brief, full name, age, occupation and how long you’ve been a resident. Here is my email address:” He gives her his Outlook address, which would not be discoverable in the city’s public record stream, even though emails sent to a private address regarding city business are public records. But it is up to the official to ensure that they are added to the public archive.
The words “Alfin bonds” and “Alfin junk bonds” recur, but many of the exchanges, Duarte’s texts especially, are genuine opinions on public policy–summaries of what she spoke at council meetings, questions about inner workings of the permitting department, a little flattery for Danko (“thank you for being brave”), more choreography from Danko (“Love it! Spread it!” he tells her the afternoon of Aug. 29 in response to a brief video she’d made. “I’ll give you a couple of other talking points tonight”) and the occasional idea, such as expanding the council to seven members.
But cracks also appear between Duarte and Danko as Danko previews to her his intentions for the Sept. 3 council meeting. “No,” Duarte texts him, “you’re trying to vote to rearrange a temporary wording which still takes away our vote. Stop! And if I’m wrong here, that tells you how unclear it still is.”
Danko clarifies, again making explicit not only his driving role in the lawsuit against the city, but in crafting a motion predicated on a lawsuit, if his motion were to fail: “We can’t change the language on the ballot, not enough time,” he texts. “My motion is to take off ballot. If that fails, then we go to court.”
That night Pontieri voted with Danko in a failed 2-2 motion to remove the referendum from the ballot, or not have it counted. Danko exulted. “Pontieri voted with me to remove,” Danko texted Duarte. “This strengthens our legal case to remove this. I will call you later and explain exactly what I was doing.” He adds: “We won a big victory tonight,” boasting of “a bunch of media coverage tomorrow and Pontieri flip-flop helps us in court.”
Duarte disagrees: “No we didn’t! It’s still going on the ballot. To confuse the masses!” Duarte continues to express reservations. When Danko texts her that Alfin and Council member Nick Klufas are “in the pocket” of developers, she texts: “There are roamers [rumors] that you and Pontieri are as well.” Danko is frustrated: “I’m the one who’s fighting to stop this. We will kill this in court.” Again, an explicit description of his direct role in the litigation before it was filed. But he is clearly enjoying the interactions and riding a high from the council vote, texting Duarte at 11:15 p.m. to ask her if she was still up for a chat.
Their texts touch on other matters discussed at council, and include Danko’s caution: He explains to Duarte that she “will not be talking with” Marcus Duffy, the city attorney. “He is not the lawyer we have hired.” (Emphasis added.) “Also, please do not post anything online about our legal efforts. We don’t want to alert them.” But Duarte “can’t agree to not talk till I have a conversation with this attorney. Educating the community is important on this issue.”
Danko asks her not to “discuss the case with the media once the attorney files. That’s all,” and adds: “I need to know that you can do that or we will need to find another plaintiff. The court is the only way we can pull this from the ballot.” (Emphasis added.)
The evening of September 5, she texted him: “I thought you said that this attorney was pro bono?” It wasn’t: “I just want you to know this is not pro bono,” Danko texts, but this cost[s] you nothing. You are totally free to educate the public, all I was saying was don’t discuss the case” publicly. “You will need to follow the instructions of the lawyer. I need to know this. We are on the same team.”
But Duarte had lost interest in being Danko’s recruit. Danko, in an interview, said he “went down a bad path, but it went nowhere.”
She then informs Danko that she had filed a “class action suit,” though it was nothing of the sort.
In late September Duarte, representing herself, filed suit in circuit court, appending some of the documents she’d sent or received from the city under the heading of an urgent motion for injunctive relief in an effort to stop the referendum. The same day, Circuit Judge Chris France dismissed the suit as not only “legally insufficient” but “nonsensical and any attempt to answer the complaint would be futile.” Duarte’s amended complaint did not fare better.
She’d cobbled together parts of numerous documents Duarte has sent the city–complaints, accusations, allegations, including individual complaints against each of the council members and the city attorney. Most of the material is undocumented, lacks specificity, coherence, or an understanding of basic government functions, much of it copies other documents or announcements, calendar announcements, and Duarte’s own annotations of documents, and none of it appears actionable–as France readily found.
Her main concern is borrowing for the sake of the so-called “westward expansion,” the city’s plan to develop the acreage west of U.S. 1, though that acreage was permitted for two vast developments in the middle of the last decade. “They’re actually going to bankrupt the city of Palm Coast, and they don’t care. They’re going to be doing their project on the other side, regardless of what’s going on here that we need in Palm Coast.”
She says she will try to file again, on her own.
To Danko, he was merely “encouraging her,” he said. “My conversations with her have been all over the map.” He did not describe conversations with Lowe. “Look, I’m glad this suit was filed,” meaning the Lowe suit. “I’m not part of any of the legal conversations other than private conversations with Alan. I’ve praised him for it.”
He did not see any conflicts with his role on the council, or at the closed-door meeting. “At the shade meeting, it was a 3-2 vote,” he said, “and the other side won.”
Local governments are barred from taking votes in a closed meeting. But that’s a different issue.
Not surprised says
Who is David Butler? Why is Danko working for him? This tells everyone Lowe did it for Danko? Who paid for the lawsuit? Let the subpoenas fly. Send to ethics board.
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
Commission on Ethics have been notified.
Jim says
Duarte just found out what most of Palm Coast has known for a couple of years – do NOT trust Danko on anything. The guy is a back-door operator who has all the traits of a vampire – at all costs, stay out of the sunshine! He’s gone in a few days and I don’t think our illustrious council will do the right thing and censure this jerk. I wish they would do something of the sort so it would be part of the public record going forward if this sleaze bag ever tries to run for office again.
Oh, an Mr. Lowe, take a hint and stop running for public office here. Your name has come up several times in dubious (or worse) situations and it’s clear to most of us that you, Danko and several others think you’re some kind of underground Mafia that is going to control Palm Coast. Yet every time one of the snake heads arise, the odor becomes obvious and they crash and burn – like Danko did when he ran for county commissioner. This is a bunch of Keystone Kops losers and it would be better for everyone if they just crawled back under their rock and stayed there.
JimboXYZ says
End of the day on Nov 5 this issue effectively disappears. The masses would never give the government a blank check. Inside the government building & among themselves is another vote of politics. I do have that much faith in Flagler County voters that this line item on the ballot isn’t getting the support to pass.
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
Let’s pray your right.
Callmeishmael says
More of Danko’s blathering idiocy and narcissistic manipulation. Now, I’m no fan of Alfin, but you, little Eddie, really have a you know what for him.
Here’s some news for you Eddie boy, your turds have a better chance of freezing in hell than this amendment has of passing in a public vote.
Alfin is laughing at you, and he’s not the only one.
Aren’t you embarrassed?
Kat says
Color me not surprised. The description of the cobbled together documents sounds exactly like all of the failed Trump lawsuits positing that the election was stolen.
Bailey’s Mom says
When will Stanko be gone? It can’t come soon enough, the Citizens have spoken…Good Bye to Ed Stanko, he follows Joe “Jan 6” Mullins out the door and We The People never gave “Sovereign Say No to” Lowe the opportunity to hold office in our County! They All Fall Down!
Each election brings better qualified candidates to the City & County and in 2 years we can get the School Board back on track!
Remember it’s about all the people in Palm Coast, Flagler Beach & Bunnell so let’s work together to make our County a community and Choose Humanity!
The dude says
Ummm… little eddy danko only lost by like 11 votes or something.
The shitty little lawn troll of a “man” has very significant support here.
Like all other MAGA , it’s a weed, and if you don’t keep removing it, it WILL come back.
Danko isn’t done here. His little coalition that lives in the shadows is still very much alive.
Protonbeam says
agreed – he needs the full Danko treatment (that which he doles out on others) on this and massive PR requests on him before he leaves office – where there is smoke there is fire.
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
That’s why we keep dragging it out of the shade.
Linda says
What’s a “certified nutrition specialist”?
Yet another fake and fraudulent “certification” or degree or diploma used to defraud the public into thinking this person (and many others) knows anything about nutrition and that includes any other of the myriad of frauds in this county.
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
Hey, Look at my profile. I earned my certificate. I get people off meds. I have competed on stage after age 50. I help people for free to live better lives. Before you bash anyone, you should collect your facts. Thank you Karen for your comment.
Linda says
Check the Florida Statutes . . . Specifically FS 468.509 AND 64B8.42.002 Administrative Code.
1. You must have a bachelor’s degree in nutrition.
2. You MUST submit official transcripts from your bachelor’s degree from a university accredited by generally accepted accrediting agencies
3.You MUST participate in 900 hours of pre-professional experience as described in FS 64B8. 42.002(3), F. A. C.
4. After all the above, you MUST submit an application for licensing fee to the State of Florida Department of Health for examination and licensing.
If you don’t have the bachelor’s degree from an accredited university in dietetics and nutrition AND haven’t fulfilled the requirements as required by stated Florida Statutes AND participated in the required 900 hours AND taken the state examination AND paid your licensing application fee to be dispensing nutritional advice and counseling to the public, YOU are operating outside the law.
That is very serious business Jeanie Whitemoon Duarte.
You’ve opened yourself up to prosecution by your post.
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
You are funny!
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
You are more than welcome to visit my fb page. Here is my website as well. The only thing fake in my life are people I felt I could trust.
http://www.3DPhysique.com
The price you pay for stupidity says
You can’t make this sh@t up!
Danko has to try to be in control even as he is leaving. Thank God he didn’t get past the primary for County Commission.
Now maybe he’ll carpet bagger his ass elsewhere.
The dumbest two guys in the room. Danko and Lowe.
John Stove says
My god….how more dysfunctional and corrupt can the City of Palm Coast and its Council be? These imbecilic morons with their back room deals, piss poor referendums, bad budget decisions, no long term capital projects budgets etc etc etc
NO UNLIMITED BORROWING POWER…..now or ever, you cant be trusted as evidenced by how you operate on a day to day basis.
Joe D says
But….the Citizens VOTED for DANKO…are some of these candidates the BEST that Palm Coast has to offer? If so, Palm Coast is in sadder shape than I thought…or maybe voters don’t CARE about how their TAX
Money is spent or how their lives are governed…I find that hard to BELIEVE!
PEOPLE… wake up! It VERY MUCH MATTERS who you vote into office….from the President down to local offices…and you can’t just take candidates “word for it.” You have to VERIFY!!!
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
I agree
Jeani Whitemoon Duarte says
I agree
Randy Bentwick says
He is striving for Joe Mullins status.
Tired of it says
The information as to why the Republican Party, where he came from, kicked him out was public. But in this county, as the wife of a prominen, local Republican once said to me, they will vote for a bad Reoublican over a good Democrat every time. The sad part is that they have learned nothing from the fiascos with Alfin, Mullins, Danko, Chong and Flurry. They will keep doing it.
Leila says
@Tired of it: Democrats don’t run in Flagler County. Maybe they should try it instead of complaining here.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Might want to look at your Ballot on November 5th, plenty of Democrats running right here including in the Non-Partisan races.
Dems Should Step Up says
There are TWO. I’m not counting the Mosquito Control races because they have been held by the 2 D’s running for YEARS. They are not new candidates. Wouldn’t call that plenty, especially when all county level races were determined already in the primary.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
You also have State Senate, State Representative, Congressional Representative besides the Presidential and non-partisan races. Yet it seems the loudest voices on this story come from the right which is about correct with so many more GOP Voters in Flagler County than Democrats. Those same GOP Voters continue to Vote for the same people over and over regardless. As for the County Board races you would have to ask the County Democratic leaders why no candidate was available, above my pay grade.
Joe D says
For Leila:
There are 4 registered Republicans for every 1 registered Democrat in the state of Florida (massive shift from Retirees moving into the state since 2016). I’m a lifelong Democrat, however I vote for the PERSON and their VALUES and past BEHAVIOR, so I have voted for Democrats AND Republicans. After the loophole shenanigans used in the recent local primary, where several “ghost” candidates (who had NO INTENTION of actually campaigning for the job) were put on the ballot in Palm Coast…with the EXPRESS reason to increase the number of candidates, only to block Democrats and Independents from being able to vote in the Primary Election, I was sickened by Flagler County Politics!
I can’t believe I’m actually CONSIDERING changing parties ( guess that would mean I would be a “RINO”…Republican in name only), just so I could have some reasonable choice in how our local government is run. Of course, in the back of my mind, I can hear my Irish Catholic Democratic MOTHER turning over in her grave 😇!
In direct answer to your question about Democrats not wanting to run, is they usually feel there is no point in trying to move the MASSIVE Republican wall in Tallahassee.
Case in point, the Florida Senate race between Republican embarrassment RICK SCOTT and his HIGHLY QUALIFIED Democratic competitor Debbie Mucarsol-Powell… who are statistically TIED in latest polls…but GOD forbid we would put one of those NASTY DEMOCRATS in office…regardless of how hard they might work for Floridians! No…we’ll vote the party line for Rick Scott ( how many times did he plead the fifth amendment during his testimony as an administrator for a medical insurance company, when they were on trial for one of the largest MEDICARE FRAUD cases in history)…apparently he’s the BEST CANDIDATE to represent his (opps, I meant the Citizens) interests in the US Senate 🤨!
How SAD for Florida!
Maria Dunbar says
Joe,
Those “ghosts” are buddies of Danko & Lowe. What’s that tell you?
Nuff said?
That was nothing more than Disgusting tactics for “Party Values” to disenfranchise the entire Democratic voters. I’m conservative, but I believe in EVERYBODY’s RIGHT TO VOTE – even if those ideals are different than my own.
M.
Diana M says
Nothing about this man could surprise me….to attempt to get a citizen involved like this is unconscionable…I have said it before and I will say it again….thank God he is gone off of the Palm Coast City Government dais and won’t sit on the Flagler County Government dais !!!
Joe D says
For Diana M:
You mean he’s gone from the Palm Coast and County Commissions FOR NOW! He’ll be back! And in the meantime, you can likely expect continued behind the back, underhanded, self serving behavior behind the scenes, in the shadows, until he sees another chance to grab POWER!
Once dishonest people get the TASTE of power, it’s like a DRUG ADDICTION…they cannot get that lust out of their minds.
My concern is that GENERALLY people are so busy with the stress and demands of everyday life, that they don’t have the time or willingness to see the TRUTH behind the CURTAIN…they believe whatever they are told, no matter how many times or how WILD they lie …just witness the Presidential campaign s!!!
Diana M says
Oh I definitely believe Danko will still be behind the scenes acting like his same disgusting self.
Craig says
Corruption in City of PC Council, when does it end???????????????????????????????
Judith G. Michaud says
No surprise here! What else would you expect from the president of the Trump club? It makes me sick to see all these MAGA tricks from Danko! How much lower does his god have to go before he wakes up or will he ever?
The dude says
There is no bottom.
None.
y says
Yes Mr. Dude,……
this county still permeates with the stink of Mullins, Lowe, Danko and don’t forget Barbosa. Don’t think for a minute that they still are not trying powerplays behind the scenes , here in Dump Coast F.L. 32137
Endless dark money says
These are gop “values”
Bette Boop says
@Endless dark money,
Danko crawled out from under a rock at CNN. The GOP here do not claim him.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
November 5th is here people, Vote Smarter and stop Voting for that same Party in charge of Palm Coast you keep complaining about. Otherwise you’re just going to be giving the same complaints in the new year, though do give the new city council time to get on their feet.
Dems Should Step Up says
Perhaps if more Dems ran for office this could happen. When the majority of candidates are Republicans there really is no other choice.
Maria Dunbar says
Take a good look at these “republicans” running for office. Many are Democrats who changed over because they think they can’t get elected unless they run on the conservative ticket.
All you need to do is take a look at their past. Pretty sad, huh?
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Look closer at your Ballots.
Joe D says
Don’t vote for the “Party”…vote for the PERSON!
Look at their beliefs, their past behavior, who they surround themselves with, their qualifications…not just what they SAY!!!