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
Gary says
I would not trust Pontieri to be in any position. After her attempt to deceive the people of Palm Coast on the admendant. She and the city lawyer reworded it and left out words to railroad it Thur to get Alfin 90 million in loans for an unwanted unneeded statium. I called it out at a council meeting. Explaining her plan. Danko picked up on it and removed his vote after finding out the real plan. Then he asked her to read the reworded amendment. She kept reading parts that were dropped out. Then paused and reread the rewriting. Many people of Palm Coast saw the deception. Voted it down at election time.
I WILL NOT says
I agree with you on Pontieri. Another one backed by the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee. It was a done deal and she moved into her district in the “C” section even before the election because everyone knew it was a done deal because of her backing by the Republican Executive Committee, regardless of her past issues.
I’m a Republican woman and I WILL NOT VOTE FOR PONTIERI.
I see a lot of women backing Pontieri. The days of backing a woman running for political office simply because she’s a woman are over.
As a highly educated woman with a bachelor’s in business, master’s, and a scientific doctorate, here’s my question to Pontieri since I know how expensive it is to get a professional degree: Is she current on her student loans? Has she paid off her student loans with the money she got from free government PPP money? That’s the free government money that us taxpayers paid for with our own taxes.
Richard says
This is about as worthless a comment as someone could write.
You claim to be educated but, it seems your only reason for condemnation of Pontieri is because she’s a member of the Fl Repub Executive Committee? That’s weak.
In her time on the City Council, Pontieri has ALWAYS been steadfast. She’s always been prepared and has conducted herself with the utmost professionalism.
The same, simply cannot be said for all the city council members.
For you to claim so much education, you really didn’t make any worthwhile claims. This makes you seem like a nut.
…and we know who they support. No thank you. I like my city council working without all the drama!
Deborah Coffey says
There’s a song…”When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?” If it has an “R” next to it, they vote for it every time. Character doesn’t count. Experience doesn’t matter. A good track record is meaningless…until the voter never experiences anything positive. Then, there are regrets. Seriously, are things cheaper? Are your leaders working hard? Do they keep their oaths? Do they obey the law? Just asking for a friend who always considers CHARACTER first.
Dennis C Rathsam says
I pitty the new city manager, I hope he,s got a card up his sleeve… Wait til he see,s the disfuntion of the city council, the rotten back door deals, that doomed P/C,s past! I wish him all the best…. Just be carefully on who you trust. We tax payers,have already realized….You cant trust anyone of them.
celia pugliese says
Being a Palmcoaster since 1991 I have seeing a lot of water under our bridges. To many of us, (thou no one or nothing is perfect and we can’t achieve 100% of what we wish) Pontieri has been the most approacheable and receptive in current and past council. The disliked 100 million for the out west expansion was the big decision by lawmakers in Tallahassee like Renner and Hutson sent to our council practically for a YES only, but she is the one that investigated reading hundreds of pages in a long weekend something the other members didn’t see. The developers wanted to change the original DRI from back when ITT developed Palm Coast and have us to pay for all the infrastructure and sport amenities hundreds of millions, when ITT back then committed and paid for it all. So she alerted and wised the council to just keep the old DRI in place for any new comprehensive plan. So far the 100 millions works plan…not materialized yet, but instead the Vice Mayor have helped us residents in many issues that were resolved thanks to her intervention and leadership. We may not have gotten all we “want” but quiet few of what we “needed”. She worked very hard this year to attend and represent us in all the committees and obligations that the mayor could not comply with while trying to hear the many different residents issues, including those that keep us Palmcoasters apart, given the wave of newcomers with total different views of the city founded by ITT. Is not easy by a council member to satisfy the old versus the new Palmcoasters and she has tried hard. Running for county commission she should have our support as she knows also what Palmcoasters need.