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Politics

Uh-oh, Baker has done it again

The St. Petersburg mayor had two trees not up to code.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 18, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - In more than six years in office, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker has been described lots of ways. Tall. Republican. Christian. Connected. Musician. Prominent. Smart. Reflective. Savvy.

Add another to the list: code violator.

Here's a look at case No. 07-00017315. The city of St. Petersburg vs. the Honorable Richard M. Baker.

The complaint: A local landscaper is fed up with the city's attacks on a friend who has a hedge that the city says is too big. He contacts the mayor's office to inform Baker that he has some code problems of his own.

"You could pretty much go to any house in the city of St. Petersburg and find some violations," admits the man, 41-year-old Joe Pazourek. "But it seems awfully hypocritical that the mayor can't follow his own laws."

The allegation. Baker, a 51-year-old father of two, allowed two of his trees, a jacaranda and an oak, to grow too close to a sidewalk and an alley in Baker's Old Northeast neighborhood.

When Baker received the complaint, he forwarded it to the code enforcement department. "If someone says that to me, I'm part of the government," Baker said. "We should treat it as an official complaint."

The evidence. The investigator, Tom Gajentan, inspected Baker's multistory home and took photographs, according to a log that tracked the department's actions.

The trees, Gajentan determined, did violate the city's code. The brush narrowed the clearance on the sidewalk under the required 8 feet. The alleyway's required 14-foot clearance was also compromised.

The motive. Officials are not sure why Baker let his trees obstruct the public's right of way. The director of the codes department speculated that it may have had something to do with the fact that during the summer, trees grows more quickly.

It's not the first time Baker has had a run-in with codes investigators. The most recent complaint, first documented Aug. 30, is the fifth time in the last three years Baker has been the target of a codes inquiry.

Baker's rap sheet includes investigations for a boarded-up window, a broken fence and rubbish found in the yard. And Baker has been warned before about the jacaranda and the oak.

Each time, Baker fixed the problem quickly. He said that on at least one occasion the complaint was politically motivated.

The defense.When reached for comment Wednesday, Baker - who is 6-foot-7 - said he could walk under the trees without incident.

When he received the standard "notice of violation," which carries no fine, Baker went out with his two children and trimmed the trees. "I could use the sun anyway," he said.

The verdict. Guilty. "It was a violation," said codes compliance director Todd Yost. "If a neighbor or citizen complains on a council member or the mayor or any city staff, the codes department is going to follow up."

The sentence.Once Baker trimmed his trees, that ended the city's involvement. Case closed.

Aaron Sharockman can be reached at asharockman@sptimes.com or 727 892-2273.

[Last modified October 18, 2007, 07:00:05]