Everglades City resident reacts to allegations of former mayor

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Sammy Hamilton (Photo via CCSO)

A former Everglades City mayor accused of stealing thousands of dollars in taxpayer money is out on bond.

Some neighbors tell WINK News they pushed for Sammy Hamilton to resign because they couldn’t trust him.

This now raises the question: What did he do while he was in office?

“The chance of recovery is very good and the chance of anything like that happening again is slim to none,” said Everglades City resident Kathleen Brock.

Brock said she wasn’t surprised about the accusations against the former mayor.

“Moving backwards a year or two there’s been rumblings about that in town,” Brock said.

She said right before Hurricane Irma, the public had a petition calling for Hamilton to resign.

“I think people in town felt there was a lack of transparency,” Brock said. “We aren’t all necessarily focused on what’s happening in the politics in town and paying attention maybe you might in a larger area.”

Brock tells WINK News the nail in the coffin was keeping the public in the dark about what was really going on at the city’s sewer system.

“It was painfully obvious that the sewer system is not sufficient for the capacity we have and if we had a rainfall they were dumping it into the river and that was very upsetting to hear,” Brock said.

More than two years ago, Hamilton said he would use grant money to fix it, but WINK News learned Tuesday it did not happen.

Current Mayor Howie Grimm did not want to go on camera or talk about the open investigation into Hamilton.

Grimm did say the city is working with the county to apply for real grants to replace the sewage system.

“It’s much more transparent I would say the citizens had a wake up call,” Brock said.

The Department of Environmental Protection said they’re working with the city to eventually replace the sewage plant.

Grimm said there hasn’t been any recent spills.

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