Council-manager government and city charter — Palm Bay, Florida

Palm Bay runs on a council-manager system: an elected Mayor and four Council members set policy, and a City Manager they appoint runs daily operations from City Hall at 120 Malabar Road.

The City of Palm Bay describes the arrangement directly: the Mayor and four (4) Council members (City Council) are the legislative branch of city government (City of Palm Bay Legislative page). The Mayor presides at Council meetings and is the ceremonial head of Palm Bay, while the Council approves the budget, sets the tax rate and decides long-term questions such as land use, capital improvement plans and capital financing.

The Palm Bay City Manager's Office compares the split to a company: Council acts like a board of directors and the City Manager like a chief executive officer appointed by that board (City Manager). The charter itself makes the same point in Article I, where every reference to the council means the mayor and the other councilmembers, so the Mayor of Palm Bay votes as one member of a five-seat body rather than running departments (charter Article I, page 16).

The current charter dates to 1992. Article I says the existing municipal corporation known as the city of Palm Bay is continued and reestablished, with the note Ord. 92-28, passed 9-17-92, adopted by the electorate 11-3-92 (charter Article I). The city's own charter page now presents the preamble as amended in 2022 (City Charter page). Article I also keeps extraterritorial powers for mutual aid with Brevard County and neighboring cities, the legal basis for Palm Bay sharing police and fire personnel and services across city limits.

The Palm Bay City Charter creates three officers who answer only to the City Council: the City Manager, the City Attorney and the City Clerk.

The Legislative page states that three (3) positions created by the Charter, known as Charter officers, are appointed by and report directly to the City Council (Legislative). Palm Bay department staff work under the manager, so a question about a road, a permit or a utility bill goes to a department rather than to a council seat.

City Manager. Charter Section 4.01 calls the manager the chief executive and administrative officer of the city, and Section 4.011 says the council shall appoint a manager by a majority vote of all councilmembers, chosen on administrative and executive qualifications (charter text in the January 15, 2026 minutes, page 3). As of October 2026 the City of Palm Bay names City Manager Matthew Morton, with Deputy City Managers Brian Robinson and Jason DeLorenzo (City Manager). Morton oversees thirteen departments, from Fire and Police to Utilities, Growth Management and Public Works.

City Attorney. Section 3.112 requires a practicing attorney with at least five years of experience in the courts of Florida, and Section 3.111 says the attorney serves at the pleasure of the Palm Bay council (charter Section 3.11). The City Attorney's Office works only for the city as a municipal corporation; its page says attorneys employed by the City cannot provide legal advice to citizens and lists the office at (321) 409-7185 (City Attorney).

City Clerk. Section 3.07 has the clerk give notice of council meetings, keep minutes and coordinate with the manager, and Section 3.071 lets the Palm Bay council remove the clerk by a majority of all councilmembers through a resolution stating the cause (charter Section 3.07, page 2). Terese Jones is the City Clerk and a Charter officer appointed by and reporting to Council; her office runs city elections with the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections, qualifies candidates and codifies ordinances (City Clerk). The clerk is also the keeper of the city seal under Article I.

Article V of the Palm Bay charter makes council races nonpartisan and at-large, requires two years of city residency before the election, and sets four-year terms with a limit of three in a row.

The residency rule reads that candidates for the office of city council shall be a resident of the city and shall have been for at least two (2) years immediately preceding the election, and must stay a Palm Bay resident and elector while in office (charter Article V, page 18). Section 5.042 sets the term at four years, limited to three (3) consecutive four (4) year terms, and counts a partial term as a full one unless it was an appointment of less than one year.

Seats are numbered even though everyone votes citywide. The Mayor and Seats 2 and 3 are elected in presidential years, and Seats 4 and 5 two years later (Article V). That schedule is why the Palm Bay election on November 3, 2026 fills only Seats 4 and 5, for terms running to November 2030 (City Clerk elections page). Mayor Rob Medina's current term began in November 2024 and expires in November 2028, his second consecutive term (Mayor / City Council).

The Palm Bay charter caps growth in city property tax revenue at 3% a year and makes large special assessments subject to a vote of the affected owners.

Section 6.01(b) bars the Palm Bay City Council from setting a millage that raises budgeted ad valorem revenue over the budgeted ad valorem revenue for the previous fiscal year by more than three percent (3%) (charter Article VI, page 20). The section carries the note that the amendment was adopted by the electorate on November 8, 2016. Revenue from new construction, additions and major renovations not on the previous year's roll is left out of the calculation, so newly built Palm Bay homes do not count against the cap in their first year on the roll.

The cap has one escape valve: Council may exceed it if a supermajority finds an excess is necessary because of emergency or critical need, and that finding lasts for a single budget year (Article VI). Millage for voter-approved Palm Bay general obligation bonds sits outside the cap. Section 6.02 adds that any special assessment involving more than fifty (50) property owners or a project over $25,000 must first win a majority of the affected owners who return a ballot.

Article VII lets the Palm Bay council borrow and issue notes and bonds as state law allows, by resolution or ordinance, or by referendum where the Florida Constitution requires one, and to set up sinking funds for debt (charter Article VII, page 10). Article VIII is three short commands: there shall be a police department, there shall be a fire department, and the city manager keeps a current plan for floods, hurricanes and other disasters (charter Article VIII, page 11).

Charter amendments proposed by Palm Bay City Council ordinance or citizen petition go to the voters, and the only Palm Bay charter question on the November 3, 2026 ballot concerns how Council vacancies are filled.

State law sets the path. Under Florida Statutes 166.031 a city council may propose an amendment by ordinance, or electors may propose one by petition signed by 10 percent of the registered electors as of the last preceding municipal general election; the measure then goes to the next general election or a special election, and the adopted text is filed with the Department of State (F.S. 166.031). In Palm Bay the City Clerk coordinates the regular municipal and special elections with the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections (City Clerk).

The Supervisor of Elections lists Palm Bay Ordinance 2026-20 on its 2026 referenda page, asking whether section 3.062 of the Palm Bay City Charter should let the remaining Council members fill a vacancy by appointment when 12 months or less remain in the term, with an election when more than 12 months remain (Brevard County Supervisor of Elections). The Supervisor's Palm Bay office is at 450 Cogan Drive SE.

The Palm Bay Charter Review Commission page invites anyone who wants to propose charter revisions to write to charterreviewcommission@palmbayfl.gov and says agendas are posted within 7 days of a meeting (Charter Review Commission page). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Legislative and Charter Review Commission website.

The Palm Bay Charter Review Commission, a ten-member board, approved several amendments between November 2025 and January 2026 for City Council to consider.

The roll call in the January 15, 2026 minutes lists ten members, with Ken Delgado as chair and Thomas Gaume as vice-chair, and the minutes record that the meeting was held in the Palm Bay City Hall Council Chambers at 120 Malabar Road (January 15, 2026 minutes, page 1).

The approved list printed in the commission's February 2026 packet starts with council vacancies: if twelve (12) months or less remain in the unexpired term, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment, and otherwise, when no general election falls within a year, by a special election 90 to 180 days after the vacancy (approved amendments, page 11). The same packet shows a cut in the Palm Bay petition threshold for charter and ordinance initiatives from 10% to 4.5% of electors, plus written rules for public comment cards and a five second broadcast delay at Council meetings (approved amendments, page 12).

On January 15, 2026 the commission voted 6 to 2 to require that the Palm Bay city clerk, city attorney and city manager be U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization (January 15, 2026 minutes). On March 12, 2026 a motion to replace the 3% cap with the Consumer Price Index plus two percent, never above five percent, failed (March 12, 2026 minutes, page 3). Of these recommendations, only the vacancy rule reached the Palm Bay ballot as Ordinance 2026-20.