COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
In a recent forum sponsored by the local Tea Party, Vero Beach City Council candidate Harry Howle claimed he does not support short-term, so-called vacation rentals. If this is truly Howle’s position, you might expect him to also opposed violations of the City’s Code prohibiting boarding houses in residential neighborhoods.
Yesterday, in a Code Enforcement Board hearing, Howle joined one other Board member in supporting a truly novel approach to circumventing City Code. Fortunately for Vero Beach residents interested in preserving the tranquility of their neighborhoods, Howle was outvoted.
Irene Snyder, who owns the so-called “Banyon Street Boarding House,” had been fined $500, and was appealing her case to the CEB. As proof Snyder was operating a boarding house, Code Enforcement Officer, Melody Sanderson, told the CEB Snyder had issued multiple written leases to tenants renting one room each.
Snyder’s attorney proposed that if leasing single rooms was not legal, his client could issue each tenant individual leases for the entire house. Every tenant in the so-called “Banyon Street Boarding House” would then have an individual lease claiming responsibility for the entire house, as if they lived there alone. One board member described the proposal as a “cleaver legal circumvention,” a circumvention Howle supported.
Recently Howle’s political patron, City Councilwoman Pilar Turner, lost a 4-1 Council vote in which she argued City Code prohibiting short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods.
Indian River Guardian 
Hats off to the three Code Enforcement board members who voted to find the Snyder house a boarding house. Shame on Harry Howle for voting it was NOT a boarding house. I guess he is a council candidate with no scruples, Howle has shown himself to be nothing more than your run of the mill political opportunist. He had his chance to do what’s right and FAILED !.
Mark has again skillfully shown the deceptive nature of some ‘businesses’ attempting to circumvent the laws and ordinances of City of Vero Beach. Ms. Irene Snyder has been, in the admission of her lawyer, running an illegal boardinghouse in a residential house in Central Beach for many years. Back in Dec. 2012, the Code Enforcement Officer, Ms. Melody Sanderson, obtained 4 separate lease documents from Ms. Snyder on the so called Banyon Boarding House, each lease giving tenant ‘exclusive’ right to a private bedroom, and common access to the living room and kitchen. This constituted prima facia evidence that Ms. Snyder was running a boardinghouse. Moreover, Code Enforcement collected internet ads of Ms. Snyder offering individual rooms for rent. Yet no fine was issued, until a couple of months ago, when Mr. Howell and several other Code Enforcement Board (CEB) members agreed that she was acting in illegal manner. Ironically, Snyder’s lawyer argued that since no fines had been issued in 2012, Ms. Snyder must not have been acting illegally, or the City was not enforcing this code! The most recent decision (3-2) of Weds. Oct 14th, 2015 was on an unusual attempt of Ms. Snyder’s attorney to ‘remedy’ the illegal boardinghouse situation. Presumable, the tenants have remained in the house since the original guilty verdict and $500 fine was issued by CEB several months ago. Now Mr. Howell seems to side with Mr. Barry Segal (Snyder’s attn.) in allowing a dubious plan to circumvent the intent of the code—namely to prohibit boardinghouse in Vero’s residential neighborhoods—by issuing simultaneous ‘full leases for the entire residence’ to all 3 or 4 occupants. It is doubtful this is even legal. Which of the 3 or 4 full property leases will prevail if there is a fire or crime on the property? Who is legally liable? Fortunately, the majority of the board—minus Mr. Howell–correctly saw this scam for what it was, namely an attempt to circumvent our law restricting boardinghouses to commercial zoned areas. Howell, as chairman of the CEB, and aspiring candidate for City Council, will have to answer for his vote on this matter. And one wonders whether Ms. Snyder’s fine for violating the code will be accruing at $500/day until the matter is corrected? Perhaps that would be cheaper than her paying an attorney to find loopholes in our law.