Several of the top community leaders in Palm Coast delivered the 2025 State of the City address Thursday night from the Palm Coast Community Center. The evening, as with other years, was engineered to promote a positive image of the City of Palm Coast while also delivering updates on key local initiatives.
Opening up the evening was Mayor Mike Norris, who delivered a barrage of off-script accusations of conspiracy by players in the city's development industry. He accused private individuals of maneuvering city employees to file human resources complaints against him to oust him from office, referencing complaints from city staff that he'd been profane and rude.
“We have organizations within our community encouraging city employees to file trumped up HR charges to force a duly elected mayor out of office," Norris said, "backed by politicians who were soundly defeated in November.” Among those employees was Communications Director Brittany Kershaw, who was in attendance for the comments.
Norris also turned his sights on the Flagler Homebuilders Association, who in March organized a mass demonstration outside City Hall against Norris' proposed residential building moratorium. Norris received no City Council support for that notion, and on Thursday he characterized the HBA's protests as an intimidation tactic.
After the event, Norris' supporting information was an anecdote of being told ahead of the complaints being filed that they would happen. He declined to detail who or what organization told him, and said it wasn't any particular employees he was warned about.
Being that Communications Director Brittany Kershaw was one of the employees known to have filed HR complaints against Norris, and given that Norris didn't exclude her from his remarks, she had been effectively accused of corruption in order to oust an elected official. Kershaw called this notion "absurd" and detailed a strained relationship between the communications staff and Norris dating back months.
"We had a few meetings between January and February talking about what we wanted the theme to be, how we wanted the flow to go," Kershaw said. "We talked about including all of City Council instead of just having the mayor do the entire speech like we've done previously [...] Some challenges arose in the organization, and we were no longer having those meetings [with Norris] anymore."
She further recalled that no member of the City Council, Norris or otherwise, provided feedback about the structure and contents of the State of the City. Norris let Kershaw know minutes before the start time that he'd brought his own notes and would be diverting from the planned remarks.
Earlier this year Kershaw filed a complaint alleging that Norris had made obscene and disparaging remarks about her toenail color, reportedly describing it as a "f-cking trash bag color". He also is said to have expressed to the city's communications department that he felt they were unnecessary when he had his own private team.
Ultimately the mayor's comments diverted attention from the positive developments which the city had hoped would bring a reprieve from residents' recent angst. Infrastructure, public safety, and amenity advancements were covered in detail after Norris ceded the floor to other city leaders.
Three residents were presented with citizen awards covering the last year in Palm Coast. Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri presented the Public Safety Award to Chief Deputy Joe Barlile. Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston presented the Citizen of the Year Award to Bill Butler. Councilman Ty Miller presented the Next Generation Award to Stephen Wilcox. Also honored was Wastewater Treatment Operator Dan Niemann, who received the Employee of the Year Award.
The format of the evening was a departure from previous years, in which the mayor delivered the lion's share of the remarks. For the 2025 edition, speakers with significant time included Mayor Mike Norris, Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri, and interim City Manager Lauren Johnston. Also appearing were Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly and Palm Coast Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill.
