Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris said he had verbally agreed to support Raydient’s “western expansion” plans when he met with Rayonier officials in January 2025, even though he had no intentions of supporting the plan, Norris told state investigators.
After he agreed to support the expansion plan, Paul Rice, a top Rayonier official at the time, told him that the company would support his tenure as mayor. Norris took that to be a “quid pro quo,” which led to an accusation Norris publicly made in May 2025 against a Raydient employee he did not name, when Norris himself was under fire by the City Council and an independent investigation for his conduct.
The revelations are part of a brief investigative report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that FlaglerLive obtained. The report concluded that, contrary to Norris’s claim, no crime was committed, as “no goods, services or funds were promised or exchanged.”
The investigation was closed. Norris said he’d never received the report or word of the investigation closing–until a reporter sent him a copy this afternoon.
“Would have been nice to have received the notification last year when it was completed,” Norris said in a text. “They never interviewed my wife, who was a witness to the incident. I guess my ethical standards thresholds are a bit higher than other politicians. That’s why I refuse contributions from developers.”
The report, disclosed here for the first time, reveals some of the details Norris had almost disclosed to his colleagues before stepping back 13 months ago. It also opens a window on Norris’s interactions with people he meets in his official capacity, suggesting that what he tells them may not be what he does when it comes time to vote, which may undermine his credibility more than unsupported claims of a “quid pro quo.” He has since made no secret of his opposition to Raydient’s plans, most notably attacking them at a ceremonial groundbreaking of a road intended to open the way to the “western expansion.” (See: “Palm Coast Mayor Norris Turns Loop Road Groundbreaking Into Lashing of Western Expansion and Developer.”)
The mayor’s “quid pro quo” accusation was part of a whirl of controversies embroiling him in the spring of 2025.
As an independent investigation found Norris to have violated the charter last year when he sought the firing of two top employees, Norris publicly made the incendiary accusation against an unnamed developer. When Norris alleged he’d been offered a “quid pro quo,” fellow-Council member Theresa Pontieri accused him of throwing a grenade to deflect attention from the matters at hand, since the alleged issue with Raydient had nothing to do with the internal matters.
Norris said he’d talk about the “quid pro quo” openly at a subsequent council meeting, then reversed himself, saying he would turn over the matter to law enforcement. He mentioned Sheriff Rick Staly, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE and the Florida Ethics Commission.) Staly rebuffed him. “We just don’t go on witch hunts and innuendoes,” he said.
Norris pursued the matter through the State Attorney’s Office, which contacted FDLE on May 12.
FDLE conducted an investigation. Norris had made a criminal complaint, according to the report. Special Agents Morgan Finley and David Schlofman reviewed it, meeting with Norris at FDLE’s Jacksonville Regional Operations Center on June 4, 2025 for a sworn audio recorded interview.
Norris told the investigators that during his campaign for mayor he was “contacted multiple times by Rayonier Timber Company and their land developers regarding amending a current development of regional impact (DRI) plan that was in place on a property that Rayonier owned in Flagler County.”
Rayonier won approvals for two DRIs in 2010, one called Neoga Lakes, another called Old Brick Township, to develop a combined 11,000 housing units on land west of U.S. 1. It has since been looking to replace the two DRIs with a Master Planned Development, or MPD, to build 22,000 housing units through its real estate arm, Raydient. Raydient and city staff have been working through several versions of the MPD, which is expected to have its first public hearing before the city’s planning board next month, then at least two hearings before the City Council.
The colloquial term for the MPD is the “western expansion,” which has not been without controversy.
Norris told the FDLE investigators that he declined several meetings with Rayonier, but agreed to meet after his election, when he traveled to Rayonier’s office in Yule in Nassau County on Jan. 18, 2025.
Norris told the investigators that he met with “Rayonier employee Paul Rice in an unofficial capacity,” the report states. “Norris did not detail that any other elected officials of Palm Coast were with him in the duration of the meeting with Rayonier.” (Had there been, such a meeting would have been an illegal violation of the state’s Sunshine Law.)
“Norris stated that after meeting and reviewing the current DRI that was in place that he verbally agreed to assist Rayonier in voting to approve their proposed amended DRI,” the FDLE report states. “Norris stated that upon exiting the Rayonier facility that Paul Rice made a statement that Rayonier would support him in his tenure as mayor and in the duration of the next election. Norris felt that this statement made by Paul Rice was criminal in nature and was indicative of ‘quid pro quo.’” (Rice has since become director of ETM, the engineering company heading the Raydient project on Palm Coast’s west side.)
Norris told the investigators that “he had no intention of voting to pass Rayonier’s amended and proposed DRI prior to meeting with Rayonier and after verbally agreeing to it at Rayonier headquarters,” the report states. “Norris went on to say that he later voted against the previously agreed upon plan for Rayonier at the next Palm Coast city council meeting despite his city council counterparts voting to pass it.”
Norris was referring not to the MPD, but to the 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
The two-page investigative report “did not find evidence to support a criminal element” in Norris’s complaint. Norris has not mentioned the FDLE investigation since first speaking of his intentions to pursue it, though based on the FDLE report, it closed a year and a week ago.
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