Applause at Everglades City Hall as Mayor Sammy Hamilton resigns

A smattering of applause broke out Tuesday night in Everglades City Hall as the City Council accepted the resignation of Mayor Sammy Hamilton Jr., who ruled that hall from a small office now behind the dais for 22 years.

Many of the few dozen in attendance were glad to see Hamilton's era come to an end in Collier County's smallest city. Almost all were sorry it ended so bitterly.

A recall petition against Hamilton had collected more than the 50 signatures required to force an election. The petition was to be delivered to the supervisor of elections on Tuesday had Hamilton not resigned, said Joe West, who helped organize the recall efforts.

"He would have been gone one way or the other," West said.

The problems stemmed from the city's sewage plant, which for years has been in need of repairs and ultimately complete replacement.

The state Department of Environmental Protection sued Everglades City in 2015 after inspectors caught the city's wastewater treatment plant pumping sewage into nearby mangroves.

The city had failed to complete dozens of court-ordered repairs to the plant or move forward with a complete reconstruction of it under deadlines set in the settlement of a prior lawsuit with the DEP.

Under that settlement, the DEP had warned that it would fine the city up to $1,000 a day for each missed deadline. The total fines could prove crippling to a city with a roughly $8 million annual budget.

City Council members said Hamilton downplayed the extent of the problems at the plant and then exacerbated them by cutting off communication between the city and the DEP.

Hamilton then tried to block the City Council from hiring lawyers to represent the city in the case, even as it faced default, said Howie Grimm, a councilman who was named interim mayor Tuesday.

"We thought everything was fine, because he said it was fine, until we started making phone calls," Grimm said. "We didn't hold him accountable, and that's our responsibility."

Before resigning, Hamilton accused Councilman Parker Oglesby — in a letter mailed to all city residents — of not paying permit fees or using licensed contractors.

Later, in a five-page resignation letter, Hamilton accused some residents, employees and council members of violating various codes and laws. He said one City Council member used "illegals" to illegally extend electricity to his dock.

In his letter, Hamilton said he was particularly upset that the City Council hired lawyer J. Christopher Lombardo and his firm to represent the city in its ongoing legal troubles with its sewage plant, saying they were wasting money.

Oglesby flatly denied the mayor's assertions about him and other individuals named in the two letters. 

"All I've wanted from him was answers," Oglesby said. "He promised reports that we never got. I don't hold that against him. I do hold these two letters against him. He tried to run me out of town. He tried to ruin me in this town. He slandered me, and you just don't do that."

Hamilton declined to comment for this story.

"I feel as though I am betraying the people I care about but my heart cannot watch this so I am stepping down," he wrote in his resignation letter.

Before hiring Lombardo, the city was given 30 days by a judge to find new lawyers after the two representing the city in the DEP case quit.

In February the DEP asked the judge to force the city to give up control of both its wastewater treatment plant and drinking water plant after inspectors found a critical pump at the city's drinking water facility was leaking and in need of repairs while the plant's only backup was broken and unusable.

Had the leaking pump stopped working, water would have been shut off to the 955 homes and businesses connected to the utility, the DEP warned.

Both pumps have since been replaced by the city.

It's unclear how the city will pay for a new sewage plant, which could costs tens of millions of dollars.

The city has been taken out of default now that Lombardo has started responding to the DEP's complaint.

Grimm will serve as the interim mayor for a few months. Three council seats and the remaining two years of Hamilton's term will be decided in the November elections.