Former Sebastian City Councilman Damien Gilliams and his son Damien Lee Gilliams have both filed to run for the 2022 Sebastian City Council race.
Damien Lee Gilliams ran for Sebastian City Council in 2021, having lost to the incumbents.
Damien H. Gilliams had served on Sebastian City Council from 2019 to 2020. He was eventually removed from office through the first ever recall of Sebastian City Council-members, along with fellow Council-members Pamela Parris and Charles Mauti. Many in Sebastian have considered Damien H. Gilliams to be a disgraced former Council-member after his time in office and subsequent recall.
Damien H. Gilliams was later found guilty of three violations of the Florida Sunshine Law and one count of Perjury. The count of Perjury was a misdemeanor, per FL Statute 837.012. Click here to view the courtcase for Gilliams being charged with 3 counts of Sunshine Laws Violations and 1 count of committing Perjury.
These charges were related to actions Gilliams took while serving as a member of the Sebastian City Council.
Damien H. Gilliams is currently appealing these charges in the Florida 4th District Courts of Appeal.
He had previously ran for Sebastian City Council many times, prior to finally getting elected to City Council in 2019.
Damien H. Gilliams sent the following Press Release to Indian River News, dated August 18th, 2022:
Right is might and I shall prevail !
It has been an up Hill (and many other very questionable participants) battle, but I shall eventually prevail when all the dust settles and all the truth is clearly known about this egregious travesty of Justice that took place here in my beloved city of Sebastian.
I was found guilty of three erroneous Sunshine long violations and one count of perjury in a trial in the 19th circuit Court here in Indian River County where I feel the judge should have recused himself and the seating of an impartial jury was a major challenge.
I immediately appealed that conviction to the 4th district Court of Appeals in West Palm Beach and I am awaiting the outcome which is currently scheduled for the next few months I verbally maintain my innocence on all counts and expect to be fully exonerated.
If that fails it will then be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court where Justice can fully be done and my good name and reputation can fully be reestablished and all these who are responsible can be held accountable for their actions as this all plays out.
In the meantime there's much work to be done here in the City of Sebastian such as the following
Stop the herbicide spraying of our storm water management canals which all lead to the Indian River lagoon.
Make it a priority to stop doing construction canal wall studies and spending millions of dollars in getting nothing done .
Prioritizing and set aside more money for repaving roads and fixing potholes instead of building $9 million City garages next to Roseland
Stop the purchasing of political allies personal properties and then taking them off the market to board them up and make them vacant and destroying our working waterfront community.
Stop them from using code enforcement to go after their political enemies and being selective in enforcing our codes based on who you are.
Closely work with the Chamber of Commerce and start attracting new businesses like mom and pop stores to our business district, instead of throwing up regulations and showing a lot of vacancies in the business district
Closely monitor and work with our Environmental organizations in our community pertaining to the annexation that they the city are rushing through without proper analytical discussion.
Therefore I am again throwing my hat into the ring for a seat on the city council and today file the necessary paperwork with the city clerk.and my son Damian Gilliams Jr. has done the very same.
Damien Lee Gilliams told Indian River News regarding his run for Sebastian City Council:
“As a Sebastian native, I care about this community and it's future. I want to pass on a better Sebastian than I grew up in to the next generation. People need to pay attention to our elections and the decisions being made in their community by their elected officials. I grew up catching and eating excellent quality seafood from the Indian River Lagoon. It's simply not the same as it used to be. The longevity of our lagoon and its wildlife are* at risk due to poor decisions of incumbents and previously elected officials. I want to refocus our hard earned community tax dollars back to where they should be focused, improving the community for the residents and supporting local business. Far too many small businesses have failed in this community and the city officials certainly aren't making it easier for businesses to succeed.”
Damien Lee Gilliams made an important point that he is running separately from his Father as they are both at the end of the day, their own individual person, each respectively. He said regarding this:
My father and I may share a name but we are two very different people. We come from different generations. We have different educations, different opinions, different approaches to handling situations, and different motivations for running for city council. I'm looking forward to the debates.
We also reached out to Bill Flynn for comment on Damien H. Gilliams and Damien Lee Gilliams filling to run for office.
Flynn told us regarding Damien H. Gilliams “The voters rejected his leadership because of his antics. He thrives on attention good or bad. I hope he can get the help he needs. I am sure the city has had enough. ”
Bill Flynn helped run the bi-partisan Sebastian Recall group that worked to oust Damien H. Gilliams, Pamela Parris and Charles Mauti from Sebastian City Council in 2020.
Flynn ran the group with Tracey Cole and now Sebastian City Council-member Chris Nunn.
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