Palm Bay, FL -- The City Council voted 4-0 on both items at Thursday’s special meeting: approving a resolution to preserve the fire assessment option for FY2026-27, and approving a $55,000 settlement to close Councilman Chandler Langevin‘s federal First Amendment lawsuit. The meeting lasted under an hour. Langevin was absent for both votes.
The meeting followed a preview published earlier this week outlining what was on the agenda and why. That preview is here.
Fire Assessment: Preserving an Option, Not Creating a Tax
Resolution 2026-03 passed on a motion by Deputy Mayor Mike Jaffe, seconded by Mayor Rob Medina. The resolution does not impose any assessment. It sends required statutory notice to the property appraiser and tax collector that the city may consider a non-ad valorem fire assessment for FY2026-27, preserving the legal option to do so.
City Manager Matthew Morton opened with a direct statement of purpose: “The idea of this is to protect current residents from subsidizing new development and provides enhanced levels of infrastructure for those already existing in this geographic zone.” The assessment would apply to a specific geographic area in the southern part of the city, not citywide.
Why Impact Fees Alone Don’t Work
Morton explained the math. Impact fees cannot be bonded against. Assessment revenue can. The difference matters when a fire station costs $22 to $25 million financed over 30 or 40 years. “The total amount of impact fees we believe will be generated over approximately 10,000 lots is only 8.5 million,” Morton said. “Not even enough to build a singular fire station.”
Time pressure is real. “A temporary fire station that we just placed out in this area already has to be moved in about 15 months,” Morton said. The city has no property to move it to and no funding mechanism in place to build a permanent station. The general fund is already covering service costs in that area, and Morton described that as unsustainable.
Graduated Structure, Study Underway
Deputy City Manager Jason DeLorenzo confirmed the study cost is “roughly $56,000” drawn from fire impact fees. The assessment structure would be graduated: vacant land at the lowest rate, existing homes at a low tier, new residential and commercial construction at the full rate. The entire study and process must be completed by September 1 to allow collection to begin this fiscal year.
DeLorenzo also addressed Sunterra and other areas currently going through the county process. Any pre-annexation agreement would require those properties to join the assessment district. A pending bill in the state legislature could affect the city’s ability to require annexation for utility services, but DeLorenzo noted that the pre-annexation agreement path for municipal services would remain available.
Resident Questions
Resident activist Bill Battin came with 12 questions and read every one into the record. His sharpest: “Why did the city annex this land knowing they did not have the mechanisms to fund police and fire?” Morton acknowledged the general fund is already bearing the cost of serving the area and argued that fact makes the assessment more urgent, not less. He also said he cannot speak to the decisions made before he arrived, but noted there is commercial and industrial development underway in the zone that will benefit the entire city.
Morton addressed the precedent question directly. Palm Bay’s structure is unique: any expansion of an assessment beyond the current area would require a vote of the affected property owners. He said he doubted such an expansion would pass but acknowledged he could not predict the future.
What Comes Next on the Fire Assessment
The study is underway. A public hearing on the proposed assessment amounts is expected in early July. Each property owner in the district would then receive a mailed ballot with the assessment details. A second hearing and final vote follow. Council direction at each stage remains a decision point.
The Langevin Settlement: $55,000 to Close the Case
City Attorney Patricia Smith presented the settlement plainly. The lawsuit stemmed from Resolution 2025-41, which censured Langevin for conduct unbecoming an elected official and for improperly using city letterhead. Langevin sued, alleging First Amendment retaliation.
By the time the settlement was negotiated, the substantive issues had largely resolved themselves. The council had amended the censure resolution. Provisions related to consensus requirements and restrictions on committee reports had been sunseted and enjoined. “All of the funds are strictly for attorney’s fees,” Smith said. “None of the money goes to Councilman Langevin.” The settlement releases the city from all liability. Neither party admits wrongdoing.
How It Got on This Agenda
Battin asked how the settlement ended up on a special meeting agenda rather than a regular council meeting. Smith explained that when outside counsel and plaintiff’s counsel filed the notice of settlement, the court immediately dismissed the case and canceled the trial date. The next regular council meeting already had an agenda out. Smith said she was not willing to do an agenda revision to add it, because doing so would not look well. The next scheduled meeting was this one. Staff added it. It was not a last-minute addition.
The total city cost remains unknown. Outside counsel Alec Russell of Gray Robinson’s Melbourne office was retained about a month before the settlement. Smith has not yet received an invoice. The $55,000 goes entirely to plaintiff’s attorney Anthony Sabatini. Internal legal costs are separate and not yet quantified.
The Real Cost: A Company Walked Away
The $55,000 figure does not tell the full story. Mayor Medina asked Morton directly whether the Langevin controversy had cost the city a potential investment. Morton confirmed it had. “A publicly traded company that was looking to invest and the temperature was too hot,” Morton said. “They answered to their shareholders and due diligence and they decided to just wave off of their investment in Palm Bay for the time being.”
The settlement payment is the price of closing the chapter. The economic cost of a publicly traded company walking away from Palm Bay is not quantifiable and does not appear on any invoice.
Council Comments
Councilman Mike Hammer made the motion to approve. He did not stay quiet. “This is probably one of the darkest things that’s happened to me in a long time,” he said, citing the harassment he received for knowing it would come to this. He said he hoped the council could get back to work.
Councilman Kenny Johnson said he was annoyed with the situation. “I was ready to take this to trial, but with judges, you never know.” He referenced a censure of former Mayor William Capote roughly a decade ago, noting that Capote could have sued the city the same way Langevin did but did not.
Deputy Mayor Jaffe was direct. Langevin “calls himself a fiscal conservative” but hosted a march that cost taxpayers police overtime and then filed a lawsuit against his own city when the council censured him. The council eventually sunseted the censure. Langevin continued anyway. “He’s been a distraction long enough,” Jaffe said.
Mayor Medina closed his remarks with Ronald Reagan quotes on rejecting hate and bigotry, and tied them explicitly to his decision to vote yes. He also acknowledged that the censure decision was made with legal counsel and that no one on the dais questioned that counsel at the time. He invoked Nick Tsamoutales, a former city attorney who served Palm Bay for over 30 years, calling him “a great man” and citing Tsamoutales’s view that when legal counsel is challenged and a judge rules otherwise, you don’t fight the outcome.
Resident Reaction
Resident Michael Brietti said he learned about the hearing from social media, not official channels. His take on the settlement: “Get out now while they’re getting good because you never know how a judge is going to rule.” Resident Parker Allen estimated the total taxpayer cost at over $100,000 when internal legal expenses are factored in. He also raised the question of precedent: what stops this from happening again?
Smith answered the precedent question. Each case is evaluated on its own facts and circumstances. Settling one case does not mandate settling any other.
What Comes Next on the Lawsuit
Upon payment of the $55,000, the case will be dismissed with prejudice and a final judgment will close the record. The Langevin matter is done, legally speaking. Whether the underlying tensions return to council chambers is a separate question.
Sources
Special Council Meeting 2026-07, City of Palm Bay, February 27, 2026
