TALLAHASSEE - Steve Comley envisioned his retirement filled with long, lazy days hitting tennis balls and enjoying fishing excursions near his Amelia Island condo. 
"But now I'm fishing in the Legislature,'' Comley said. "But it's a different kind of bait; the bait is the truth.'' 
 

Comley is ticked off at a decision made four years ago by the condominium association overseeing his winter retirement community and now wages a one-man campaign to persuade the Florida Legislature to intervene.  Along the way, he has become one of the most recognizable single-issue citizen activists in Tallahassee.  Here's how Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, describes him: ``Persistent, dogmatic, unrelenting.''  Comley's journey into the political arena can be traced to 1996.  He and his wife, Judy, stumbled upon Piper Dunes North on Amelia Island and fell in love with the giant oak trees.  The New England natives decided that was it; the condo would be their home away from home.

Stephen and Judith Comley on the balcony of their Amelia Island condominium, with 3 1/2 years of documents they have collected about a dispute with their condo association.

They'd be part-time residents, traveling to Maine in the summer and living on the beach in the winter. They'd rent out their condo when they weren't there, bringing in some extra money to pad their retirement account. 

The plan worked until 2000, when the condo board put an end to short-term rentals. The Comleys quickly realized fighting the board wasn't getting them anywhere. They needed help, and they wanted legislation to prohibit retroactive property right changes for future condominium owners. 

A conversation Steve Comley had with his local representative snowballed into obsessive traveling to Tallahassee, hours of testimony before committees, mountains of paperwork, hundreds of dollars a month in expenses and a reputation around the Legislature. 

"He's very persistent. He's very tenacious,'' Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, said. ``You got to respect a man on a mission. He's determined. He's not taking no for an answer.'' 

No, he's not. 

To staffers and lawmakers, inundated with hundreds of phone calls and mail from constituents, Comley stands out. 

Some people walk around the Capitol with a manila folder; Comley rolls a cart that he parks in Bean's office. Some people hand a legislator a few sheets of paper outlining their concerns; Comley hands them so much material that Bean's staff set aside space on a bookshelf just for him. 

Some people visit their local senators and representatives; Comley claims to have stopped by the office of every lawmaker in Tallahassee, all 160 of them. 

And some people would mail a letter outlining their concerns to a state senator. But Comley drove three hours each way to Tallahassee to hand-deliver one to King. 

"Something had to be done and done right away,'' Comley said. ``I didn't want the letter to get misplaced.'' 

Comley recalls how a member of King's staff invited him in. He spent 2 1/2 hours explaining his plight. The staffers then told Comley to return a week later to chat with King. 

"I could have fallen on the floor,'' Comley said. ``I couldn't believe it. How inspiring it was.'' 

Now the drive to Tallahassee is a regular one for him. Sometimes he flies from Maine, where he and his wife reside when they aren't in Florida. 

Steve Comley, 59, and Judy, 60, met at college in Massachusetts. Comley's family is in the nursing home business, but the couple went into real estate. 

In 1997, Comley formed a national whistleblowers group, worried about safety at nuclear power plants. 

Everything Comley does, he does with passion, with his wife supporting him all the way. 

"I support him, but I wish he were someone else's husband,'' Judy Comley joked. ``It has certainly interrupted our retirement.'' 

Comley realizes that, but he isn't quitting. He plans to be in Tallahassee today to testify before yet another committee. 

"If it isn't right, you have to make it right,'' Comley said. ``We have that ability. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy.''