
Palm Coast has mordantly and vigorously answered Mayor Mike Norris’s claim that Charles Gambaro should be booted off the council and a special election held to replace him. Attorney Rachael Crews, who represents the city, is giving Circuit Judge Chris France a buffet of arguments to find Norris’ claim “frivolous,” falsely urgent, legally groundless, injurious to the city charter, and not least, without standing.
Absent more convincing and legally grounded arguments by Norris, the judge could hang his decision on any one of those arguments singly or on all of them collectively. Of course a judge’s decisions are unpredictable. But it’s not much of an overstatement to conclude that the city’s answer, filed in Circuit Court late Thursday evening, will have Norris and his attorney on their heels.
Crews doesn’t use the word, but the style and tone of the document characterize Norris’s lawsuit with a term she may well end up using in court: absurd.
Norris, who was elected and seated in November, sued Palm Coast, Gambaro and the Supervisor of Elections on May 5, claiming that Gambaro’s appointment last fall should have ended in November, and that the council should have held an election for that seat, which Cathy Heighter had resigned in August. (The Supervisor of Elections is asking the court to be let out of the suit since that office has nothing to do with the case.)
“Tardily filed” yet claiming emergency status
Norris, represented by Mt. Dora attorney Anthony Sabatini, filed the lawsuit as an emergency action, yet apparently would not cooperate with opposing counsel to set a hearing date. France set it for July 3, implicitly rejecting the claim that it’s an emergency.
Crews, an attorney with GrayRobinson who has creatively represented Palm Coast before, called the emergency request inexplicable given Norris’s seven-month wait before he “tardily filed” it. Norris, she wrote, “did not raise a challenge following Gambaro’s appointment in October 2024, and he did not raise a challenge before (or reasonably after) the November 2024 elections.”
What Crews did not write is that Norris filed his lawsuit eight business days after Gambaro led the charge to censure Norris and send a complaint about him to the Florida Ethics Commission after an independent investigation found Norris to have demeaned, insulted and ridiculed city staff members while severely violating the charter he was now invoking in his lawsuit’s defense. (Norris also claimed he would not ever want the city to be sued three days after suing the city.)
“Even if [Norris] could challenge Gambaro’s office (he cannot),” Crews argued (the parentheses are in the pleadings), “his claim fails substantively, because there was no time to follow the City’s election process and have a legitimate election by November 2024.”
That argument was expected. Crews outlined the timeline, if with a minor blind spot. Heighter’s resignation was effective Aug. 23, while the ballots for the November election were due at the Supervisor of Elections’ office by Sept. 6, 14 days total, and 10 business days, after Heighter’s resignation, Crews writes. That left no time for the city to organize an election to fill the seat and allow candidates to gather the 165 needed petitions to avoid paying the $2,867 qualifying fee.
Crews does not mention the low number of required petitions, nor does she note that, in fact, Heighter announced her resignation in a text to Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston on Aug. 17, a Friday, 21 total days and 15 business days before the ballots were due, or that the supervisor could have pushed the due date a few days, all of which would have allowed for a larger window for candidates to run, gather the necessary petitions, and qualify.
“Gambaro has better title to the office than” does Norris, the city argues in one of its sharpest rebukes.
But she does note that Heighter’s resignation (whether from the date it became effective, on Aug. 23, or a week earlier), the deadline for candidates to submit their qualifying petitions had passed on May 13. The qualification period for that year’s election had closed on June 14. And the primary for that election was held on Aug. 20.
“By the time Heighter resigned, it was impossible to comply with the City Charter and place Seat 4 for election in November 2024,” the city argues, as the council did when it made the decision not to hold a special election for the seat, and appoint a candidate instead.
All about standing
As “insurmountable” as those obstacles were (a word Crews used to describe the impossibility of an election), the points are made moot by the strongest argument in the city’s answer: Mike Norris has no standing to sue over Gambaro’s seat.
To understand this part, it’s worth brushing up on a bit of Latin and the meaning of quo warranto, which means by what authority. Under law, Crews argues, only the attorney general or a person who may claim that he, she or they have a greater right–or is the lawful holder–to Gambaro’s seat may bring an action against him to unseat him. Norris is not that person. Norris is not the attorney general. The attorney general is not a party in the suit. Therefore Norris has no standing to sue. (Standing is especially important in these circumstances so that representative democracy doesn’t turn into a litigious free-for-all any time a result isn’t to the opposition’s liking.) Crews marshals a series of precedents drawn from half a century of Florida court cases to back up the argument.
Crews goes further, stating that “Gambaro has better title to the office than” Norris does, a biting line that makes it appear as if Gambaro has more legitimacy than Norris. But it’s not snark, and it’s not just clever wordplay, though Crews was undoubtedly smirking as she wrote it. The line is grounded by a footnote citing a rule of civil procedure that states that Norris himself–not an eventual appointee or other candidate–must have a greater right to Gambaro’s seat than Gambaro does. He demonstrably does not, making him, in fact, of lesser title to the office than Gambaro.
Norris and Sabatini may argue that this is not a quo warranto proceeding. But “Decades of Florida law make clear quo warranto proceedings are the sole and exclusive means of challenging someone’s right to hold office, and neither declaratory nor injunctive actions are permitted.” Norris is seeking both declaratory and injunctive relief from the court.
He is also arguing that France should not only declare Gambaro’s tenure illegitimate, but that a special election should be held well before 2026, when Gambaro’s term is up, to fill the seat. But that would violate the charter, goes the city’s answer. The charter makes no provisions for special elections except when the mayor’s seat is vacated. It only allows appointments–or elections at the time of general elections.
No such election is scheduled until 2026. An appointment to the seat would result in the existing status quo, Crews argues–in other words, a council majority of three votes could simply reappoint Gambaro. He has those three votes, and probably four at this point.
“Gambaro has been in office for over seven months,” the city’s answer concludes. Norris’s “delay evidences a grossly inappropriate attempt to oust a political opponent from office and bring into question months of prior votes and actions by the City Council.”
In a footnote, Crews notes the fact that Norris on his social media channels has put in question numerous council actions that carried with Gambaro’s votes, suggesting he would seek to invalidate them. The city and Gambaro “strongly disagree that Gambaro’s removal would or could call into question past Council votes and actions,” the footnote reads, with bold and italics.
Norris’s “attempt to have this Court invade the legislative sphere, remove a councilperson, and undo months of legislative actions is contrary to the separation of powers doctrine,” the answer states. Norris’s “claims are an inappropriate attempt to weaponize the judicial process against a lawfully appointed Councilmember with whom [Norris] has political disagreements.”
It was the Crews version of a mic drop.
Jeani Duarte says
FUNNY!!! The so called Lawson investigation was to weaponize against Mayor Mike Norris first.
Our Mayor has every right to defend himself. Get your story straight!!!
MM says
Excellent Article. Thank you for explaining “how it all works” for those who are only believing the rhetoric that Norris spews forth. Perhaps this has shed some light on procedures and ethics.
The dude says
” The charter makes no provisions for special elections except when the mayor’s seat is vacated.”
I do hope for a special election now… I really do.
Marchesa Negroni says
“Gambaro has better title to the office than Norris does”
Ah yes, the sacred scroll of Palm Coast succession……How could we forget? 🤦🏻♀️
Shark says
All of this bullshit and in the meantime nothing gets done in this town. At least our federal government is dong away with paper straws and increasing the flow of our shower heads.
YankeeExPat says
Weaponized ?,…………….how Trumponian of you Jeani D. !
Well I guess Mayor Norris is entitled to
local lackeys too !
James says
I hope Judge France tosses Norris’ claim in the trash and kicks him out of court. The Mayor’s lawsuit against his own city is disgusting and show how low he will stoop to get even.
Tim Sharp says
I wouldn’t bet against anything Anthony Sabatini does.
Billy says
Palm coast is such a corrupt town, the realtors and town council brainwash people to come here! The whole town is like a twilight zone episode where all the citizens are controlled idiots!
celia pugliese says
And nit a word about what our Palm Coast Governing Diocument, Charter Says! Why, because the charter rules a municipality!
MELENDEZ says
Norris is and always will be loser and a clown. He basically bamboozled his way to winning an election to then sue us residents lol.
D W Ferguson says
Considering both Crews vs. Sabatini pleadings, claims , and arguments. I’ll take Crews for 100 !!!
Tired of it says
The local Republican Party knew what Norris was like but as usual they voted for him anyway. This city and county have been controlled by Republicans for decades and look at where we are know…uncontrolled growth, increased taxes and fees every time they need money because of their own incompetence, lawsuits, crumbling roads, overpaying for contaminated properties, increasing traffic busineses operating out of residential neighbothoodsc and soon, coming to a neighborhood near you, commercial vehoiules in every other driveway. Wake up people.
I.S. says
Palm coast administration and City council need investigation.
Take a look at your Water Bill.
Starting from February meter reading they charged increased Rate, however effective date is April 1, 2025.
This is City explonation:
As outlined in the ordinance, the new rates took effect on April 1st.
Accordingly, any bills with an April billing date reflect the updated rates, regardless of the usage period covered. Our longstanding policy bases billing on the date the bill is mailed, not the usage timeframe. Since your bill was mailed after April 1st, the new rates apply.
The bill was mailed on April 4, 2025, 6 day later compare to 2024, just to grab more money and long practice not mean it was done right before.
Brad W says
Can someone show me in Florida law where the Courts have the authority to remove a sitting municipal official?
I think at best the outcome is that the City needs to work to sure up the Charter language, which they are, and leave it up to the Council to figure out next steps.
Huge waste of time and tax dollars.
Alice says
The City Officials are not doing what is best for the City of PC, traffic is out of control, they allow builders to make the rules, building anywhere and everywhere. They haven’t upgraded sewer and water system for all the growth.
A Mayor that is suing the town he is Mayor of. Taxpayers can’t make this crap up it is actually happening.
It’s time taxpayers want positive results and if that isn’t possible out of the City Officials, they all need to take a hike.
Code Adam? says
The republicons literally starve people to death for a dollar and stole your rights away. Can’t wait till the gop is finally declared a terrorist org so we can round them up in the middle of night in front of of their families!!!!!it’s the new murikkkan way! Bring back rights! Bring back the illegally deported citizens! Stop the orange terrorist!
Mort says
@ Tired of it,
This Republican knows plenty of other Republicans who refused to vote for Norris. The problem here is that good candidates won’t run because of the nastiness like yours. And too many voters have the IQ of a radish.