Woman's ire rises with trees

The unattended brush from an empty lot spills over to her mother's home. The lot's owner notes that he is in compliance.

By MICHAEL SANDLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 10, 2002

LARGO -- Brazilian pepper trees are invading the home where Susan Manley grew up.

Manley has watched as the exotic trees have spread from her neighbor's undeveloped lot onto the property where her 68-year-old mother now lives.

Twenty feet over the property line and 10 feet in the air, the branches have broken past the old fence and encroached upon a once-solitary pine. If left untouched, she fears, the house may be next.

Manley, 39, has asked the property owner, a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy, to trim his trees or help pay the cost of clearing her side of the fence.

But Sgt. Ed Short told her he has broken no laws. If she wants it clear, she's welcome to do it herself.

"The law says I'm in compliance," said Short.

Short appears to be right. Pinellas County's Department of Environmental Management has a mowing violation for grass that exceeds 12 inches, but no code for branches or vines that hang over property lines.

Code enforcement administrators acknowledged that the Brazilian pepper trees grow rapidly and can be a nuisance for neighbors. But there's nothing the office can do to stop Short, or others, who don't see a problem.

The yearlong dispute escalated in November when, Manley said, Short threatened to sue her if she continues calling him at work. Short said Manley is picking on him because he's an officer of the law.

"I find that hard to believe, that someone's property can grow over on your mother's home," said Manley, a schoolteacher who lives a few miles from mother Joan Herzog.

Two inspectors looked at Short's property in December 2000 and closed the file.

"That is typically a civil matter between the two properties," said Bob Mortoro, administrator for environmental management's code enforcement division. "They either have to go to court, or reach some arrangement to cut it.

Manley said she tried to reason with Short. Then she called his supervisor in August. Lt. Ray Poole asked her to give him a month, she said. She heard nothing for two months and called Poole back in November.

Poole said he passed the message on to Short.

"This is a civil thing that doesn't really involve the Sheriff's Office," Poole said in an interview. "At this point, I don't feel I should get involved with this."

Short did return her call in November, Hanley said.

"He said if I call his shift commander again, he'd slap me with a civil suit," said Hanley, who asked Short for $200 so she could pay a neighbor to help clear her mother's yard.

"He said, 'I don't have to give you anything,' " said Hanley. "I played the moral clause. He's a sheriff. My mother is 68."

Short declined to answer any questions, but offered his side of the story.

He said he had plans to clear the lot years back, and Herzog asked him not to disturb the natural environment.

"As she said, a lot of critters lived on the property," he said. "I abided by her wishes -- I did not clear it."

Two years ago, he gave Herzog permission to trim the trees after she called. Now, he says, Manley has singled him out solely because he wears a uniform.

"This woman has no standing," he said. "What she is asking me to do is a responsibility that she has. She has already made it well-known to me that she is going to make whatever problems for me simply because I work for the Sheriff's Office."

-- Staff writer Michael Sandler can be reached at (727) 445-4174 or sandler@sptimes.com.

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