- April 16, 2024
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Updated 12:42 p.m. May 27
City Manager Matt Morton has resigned, the city of Palm Coast announced on its website May 27. Mayor Milissa Holland resigned May 18, to attend to her daughter's poor health.
Morton was hired in 2019. His contract requires a 30-day notice, according to the city's announcement.
In his resignation letter, Morton said, “I am proud of all that has been accomplished, which two years successive performance reviews attest to. We have built a citizen focused culture, managed a global pandemic emerging stronger, significantly increased metrics in foundations of livability, transparency, quality of life saw our financial condition and ratings improve.”
The Palm Coast City Council will appoint an interim City Manager in the coming weeks.
City Councilman Ed Danko said Morton's resignation caught him by surprise. "I look forward to hearing Mr. Morton's reasons, hopefully, at the next City Council meeting," he said.
Danko added that this is a bad time for the city to lose a mayor and a city manager, considering the council is about to go into budget discussions. After the July 27 special election to replace Holland, the City Council will likely begin the process to search fo a permanent replacement for Morton.
"So we’ve go a lot of work in front of us, and we're going to have to do that work, and we will," Danko said.
It was just two weeks ago that Morton was given his annual evaluation. According to the May 11 City Council meeting agenda, Morton received an average of 3.84 rating out of 5. Three City Council members — then-Mayor Milissa Holland, Eddie Branquinho and Nick Klufas — said he was "outstanding" or "exceeded expectations," while Danko said that, in limited interactions so far, Morton "meets" expectations," and Victor Barbosa gave him mostly low marks, saying Morton is unprofessional.
This is a developing story. More to follow.
