The Palm Coast City Council re-elected Theresa Pontieri as its vice mayor in a 4-1 vote Tuesday. The dissent was from Mayor Mike Norris.
Council member Charles Gambaro had nominated Ty Miller for the role, saying that since he (Gambaro), and Council members Theresa Pontieri and Dave Sullivan will be gone this time next year, Miller and the mayor are “the future of this council.”
Gambaro is running for Congress against U.S. Rep. Randy Fine. Pontieri is running for a County Commission seat. Sullivan said he is not seeking re-election, though he recently said that his decision is not final. Surprisingly, Miller’s nomination got no second. Miller could have seconded it. Norris could have passed the gavel and seconded it, as could have Pontieri. The motion died.
Sullivan nominated Pontieri, who is the senior member of the council with three years on the panel. Norris, Miller and Gabaro have two years, Sullivan has a little less, though he’s served eight years on the County Commission and as such, has the most experience as an elected official.
“I think she’s done a great job in the past year or so that I’ve been here, filling in at many events,” Sullivan said, referring to the numerous times Pontieri has stepped in where Norris should have been, after he abdicated most of his responsibilities as mayor. “Ty will get his chance to be vice mayor very soon, and I also agree that the people are moving on, but I think it’s a unique situation with our current vice mayor, who’s been doing the job excellently.”
Miller agreed and seconded the nomination. (He later said he had no designs on the role this year.) Then came the surprising vote. Norris did not explain his dissent. He had made no nominations.
Norris has been filling some of his responsibilities again, if still at times ceding the role to Pontieri, who is often the de facto mayor. The mayor’s abandonment was so pronounced that the Charter Review Committee currently meeting is considering proposing an amendment to the charter that would give the council the authority to penalize a council member who doesn’t shoulder expected responsibilities, the mayor included. (See: “Abandoning Most Public Responsibilities, But Not Pay, Palm Coast Mayor Norris Forces Council Members to Pick Up Slack.”)
Immediately after the vote for vice mayor, the council discussed its committee assignments for the year. Norris wanted to be the council representative to the Flagler County Tourist Development Council, which oversees $4.5 million in tourist sales surtax dollars, and to the Flagler County Cultural Council. FC3, as the cultural council is known, manages an annual $100,000 grant from Palm Coast government for local cultural organizations. It’s the council’s only grant of that size.
Pontieri was opposed to Norris taking over those assignments. “You abdicated those last year or earlier this year, and I’ve been working really, really hard with TDC and FC3,” Pontieri said. “I don’t want that to be interrupted at this point. When you decided to abdicate those roles, we had to step in and fill them. And I don’t think that it’s appropriate, now that I’m elbow-deep in several projects with both of those organizations. So I would like to keep those and I feel the same way about FC3.”
Pontieri also had to become the alternate delegate to the Transportation Planning Organization, a role Norris had abandoned. She was not opposed to relinquishing that to him–and urged him to take on the role–since she had not been particularly engaged in the role, unlike her work with the other organizations.
Miffed, Norris decided to keep his role limited to the joint local government panel that meets irregularly and at vast intervals–and the alternate role on the TPO, where he is unlikely to have much influence since Miller is an executive board member there, and is very involved.
“You guys can divvy up the rest of them. If you want to change, it really is no concern of mine,” he said.
The city reported the coming year’s committee, or liaison, appointments, as follows:
- Affordable Housing Advisory Committee: Gambaro.
- Family Life Center: Pontieri
- Flagler County Cultural Council: Pontieri
- Flagler County Transportation Disadvantaged Local Coordinating Board : Sullivan
- Flagler Schools Oversight Committee: Miller and Gambaro
- Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Circuit 7: Sullivan
- Joint Cities and County Workshop: Norris and Miller
- St. Johns River Water Management District: Gambaro
- Tourist Development Council: Pontieri
- Volusia-Flagler Transportation Planning Organization: Miller, with Norris as alternate.
- Northeast Florida Regional Council: Gambaro
- Flagler Humane Society: Pontieri
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