Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said today that Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris is welcome to report an allegation of a “quid pro quo” involving him and suggesting an attempted bribe from a developer, but cautions that “we just don’t go on witch hunts and innuendoes,” or “fishing expeditions,” and that in any case the way Norris has handled the matter so far has likely undermined any effective investigation.
“People are welcome to report what they believe occurred,” the sheriff said from Tallahassee in an interview with FlaglerLive today. “We will review it, and if it rises to the level of a crime, in this case I will probably conflict out, because the Sheriff’s Office has a contract with the city.” He would forward the case to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or the State Attorney’s Office. But he was skeptical about the allegation as presented so far in public, twice.
As of midday today, the mayor had not reached Staly.
Norris at a Palm Coast City Council on May 1 and again on May 6 alleged that a developer he would not name approached him with a “quid pro quo” (a request for a favor in exchange for some kind of bribe), asking Norris to approve Palm Coast’s pending Comprehensive Plan without amendments. The Comp Plan is the city’s long-range vision of itself. It maps out long-range development in broad outlines. The council approved the plan on second reading Tuesday evening, with Norris dissenting, though Norris and the council had already voted on it on first reading a few weeks ago, and Norris had said nothing about the “quid pro quo.”
Norris did so at the two May meetings immediately before the council was on both occasions to discuss issues related to the independent investigation that found Norris to have violated the city charter and repeatedly behaved unprofessionally with city staff, making it seem as if he were deflecting from the issue at hand. He alluded to sworn statements that were related to the quid pro quo, which was connected to the “western expansion,” the city’s plan to develop the thousands of acres west of U.S. 1.
That left little mystery as to Norris’s developer: two developers were interviewed as part of the investigation of Norris, Jeff Douglas of Douglas Properties, whose land holdings are in the older part of Palm Coast (Douglas Properties donated the land City Hall sits on, for example, and at one point controlled the totality of Town center), and Paul Rice, the director of real estate development for Raydient, whose parent company owns the near totality of the land that would be part of the westward expansion.
Norris wanted to discuss the allegation in a closed-door meeting with the council, supposedly because speaking about it in the open would violate a state law requiring confidentiality. No such confidentiality requirement exists in law, as City Attorney Marcus Duffy told the mayor. It is likelier that Norris did not want to speak of the allegation openly, or mention the developer’s name publicly because that might have triggered a defamation lawsuit against him and the city.
When he failed to get the council’s and attorney’s support for a closed-door meeting on May 1, he agreed to bring up the matter in the open on Tuesday, only to demur again, saying he would contact Staly instead and go the law enforcement route.
Staly in his nine years as the county’s top law enforcement officer and its consistently most popular elected official, has had no patience for individuals, politicians especially, attempting to rope him into their political labyrinth, let alone those looking to burnish their grievances’ credibility with his coattails. Norris was not likely to hear what he wants to hear from the sheriff.
“Any time you make an allegation like this public, it’ll hurt future investigations, because your target has been warned,” Staly said. What Norris should have done when the alleged quid pro quo took place, the sheriff said, was report it immediately–to law enforcement–at which point investigative means would have kicked in, untainted by public statements. Even then, the matter as described by Norris is problematic because it appears to rely on what one person said and what another heard, with Norris citing a person who appears to be his wife as one of his witnesses.
“Generally a spouse would be predisposed to support the husband,” Staly said, “so what they say has less standing unless you can verify it with hard proof. Two people against one, with no corroborating evidence, it would never get prosecuted.” The standard, he said, is evidence that holds up beyond a reasonable doubt.
So far, Norris’s claims, like many of his public statements, his behavior, his contradictions and his growing paranoia, have raised more doubt about his motives than they have appealed to reason.
Critical Eye says
Just more outrageous lies from Norris. I knew it.
Such a sick boy.
Gabe Athouse says
Can you talk about the new hammock dunes toll bridge intersection please.
MeTv says
Norris, crybaby and a liar.
Let’s see that police report so you can get burned by everyone.
Months have gone by and you’ve proved how ignorant and sick you are.
Take that left wing Rhino lawyer you hired and hit the road. He’ll soak you all the money you got and the City will not be covering you phoney legal bills.
Resign save what money you have left.
Jim says
For all you Norris supporters, just out of curiosity, if you announced criminal activities going on at your work and told your co-workers you wanted to give them all the details in another meeting, then that meeting was called and you suddenly said you were taking it to the police for investigation, how do you think that would be received? And, having said you’re going to the police, apparently have no sense of urgency to do so?
Most reasonable people would conclude that you are lying. Your credibility would be shredded. I doubt anyone would want to give you the benefit of the doubt. Some probably would feel sorry for you making a fool of yourself like that.
And no one would want to work with you and certainly not trust you. I think your days of employment could be counted on one hand.
So think hard about Norris and his behavior before offering up any more support/excuses. He does not deserve your support. He’s damaging the city daily and this needs to end. Maybe he’ll file a false police report and then I’m sure Staley will do the right thing.
David W Ferguson says
Another “ Swing and a Miss “, how many more Strikeouts does the Mayor get ? Many people wonder ,WHAT’s NEXT ?
JimboXYZ says
After reading the link of the Pail Rice interview, it’s funny that this is Wildlight Nassau County all over again in Palm Coast & the players are subsidiaries even Rayonier, Raydient. Yulee is a mess just like Palm Coast has become. Only Nassau & Yulee were +/- a decade ahead of Palm Coast. How do I know this, I lived there back in 2016 when they widened SR-200. It was like living off the Palmetto Expressway in Miami, FL with that road construction every day for years to make life suck for everyone that already lived there. I do follow the Nassau County Fernandina/Yulee real estate thru Zillow. Nothing but doubled & tripled home prices for unaffordable housing and the property flips are rampant there. Obviously they aren’t happy there when a house is resold every 2-3 years, some going back on the market the same month they were sold. At one point the local governments of Fernandina & Yulee were litigating over the Wildlight mess. And that is exactly what is going on over for westward expansion of US-1. No property owner donates land unless there’s bigger money being made from that Goodwill. The Goodwill is a tax writedown on the inflation of profits. That land was acquired & claimed in an era where it was relatively so inexpensive to what a SQ FT of land prices for today. What was Rayonier/Raydient going to do with that land that was just sitting on their books every reporting period doing nothing more than appreciating in value for the donation as a tax writeoff for the corporate financial statements ?
Don’t mean to just pick on one of the interviews linked, but this comment is going to be lengthy. go ahead & google Nassau County & Wildlight. Go ahead and subscribe to Zillow listings and know that every Biden-Harris build that’s back on the market for sale is an unhappy resident. Want more victims, the same BS we’re starting to see City of Palm Coast come up with for higher property taxes & fees/rates for water is going on in Nassau County. Property taxes have doubled, home price listings have doubled & even some have tried to tripled in Nassau County. That’s the Alfin Vision of 2050 misery of unaffordably unsustainable. And it’s coming with every council meeting with a 4:1 vote to continue with the growth that ends up being so grossly underfunded that it’s going to become a 512 million debt for people that actually live here, with the Government hoping that the inflation of their actions is offset by anyone foolish enough to move here at this stage of the mess Alfin left for Norris. There’s only one vote on that council that has 92 of the 130K residents that lived her BA (Before Alfin). Wildlight didn’t start to grow until Biden-Harris , when I lived there 2018, there were 2 houses occupied in Wildlight. And sales performance was dismal until the last 4 years of grossly underfunded growth. Take a good look at Flagler Beach, any coincidence that one oif their most recent hires was a guy they chased out of Nassau County & Fernandina Beach ? The parallels of Nassau County & Flagler County with the same players cutting deals for the development side is no coincidence. The only difference is who is governing the cities & counties, that difference got smaller when the government hires leave Fernandina for Flagler Beach. We all remember Matt Morton ? The City Manager that was replaced by Denise Bevin & was subsequently fired by Alfin, Danko & another council person ? He ended up with a real estate consulting company, if you guessed in Fernandina Beach as the where, give yourself a cookie as a treat for the correct answer. Morton is now in Palm Bay. Just connect the dots in the highest turnover positions in Flagler County for City Manager of Flagler Beach & City of Palm Coast. The same City Manager position that they can’t find a City Manager worth a darn for ? I’m not the brightest man on planet Earth, it’s no conspiracy theory that the cast of characters in this bad movie al seem to have similar ties. That isn’t random coincidence, it’s the reality & facts of it all.
“Mayor Norris later visited Wildlight, in Nassau County, to see ϐirsthand the results of close cooperation between developers and local government.”
“I’m Xxxx Xxxx and I was the Director of Real Estate Development with Raydient, LLC,
a wholly owned subsidiary of Rayonier. Rayonier is the largest landowner with property
available to the City of Palm Coast.”
Here are links to back up my comment. There are so many of them out there. And this is why Flagler County over the next 25 years will become more & more unaffordable & overpopulated. The rest of of us are picking up the tab for this. Know that Norris is the only vote that stands in the way. Why didn’t the developers support the moratorium, protesting it ? Even scale the stupidity of a Vision of 2050 back, tone it down a little.
https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2023/feb/09/raydient-and-nassau-county-settle-lawsuits/
https://palmbaylive.com/meet-candidate-2-for-palm-bay-city-manager-matthew-thomas-morton-brings-innovation-focused-leadership-and-municipal-experience/
https://www.flcompanyregistry.com/companies/perihelion-consulting-llc/
Sparks says
We all are guilty of saying something we regret at some point in our lifetime. That doesn’t mean he should have to be subjected to this treatment from Council, especially Gambaro . Time will tell and I hope and pray that Mike will stay our Mayor. The Good wins over Evil.
Rodin "The Thinker" says
Unless GAMBARO has something positive to say, he should exercise his supposed professional experience and stop all demeaning and confrontational comments to, and about, Norris and keep those to himself and his associates pulling the strings behind the scenes. That means publicly in city council meetings.
In my opinion, Gambaro is a bully and has his own hidden agenda with hidden business, professional and political associates egging him on.
His behavior has been atrocious as an appointed city councilman. He’s nothing but an instigator. He’s rude and confrontational. His behavior and demeanor wouldn’t fly very long in the boardroom.
John Maskee says
“fishing” is a very common tactic used by all LE…….
They pulled me over recently for window tint. Then asked me to get out of my car. I refused as they had no cause to do so. I suggested getting a supervisor on seen if they wanted to escalate the situation.
Skibum says
I bet the mayor is running around, looking over his shoulder while trying to dodge his own shadow that he dreams is trying to attack him.
PeachesMcgee says
NO MORE BUFFOONS!
Norm says
JimboXYZ,
You sound an awful lot like McDonald. Pointing out fires everywhere and none coming to fruition. Norris is only ONE OF FIVE votes. He does not have any authority over the others.
He is an embarrassment to this community and needs to be recalled, the sooner the better.
Done Dirt Cheap says
So the developer knows the law enough to offer a bribe to him in front of only his wife because that isn’t enough evidence to pursue. Just wow, I didn’t know it was so easy to get away with offering bribes to officials.