JOSEPH — Jobs were high on the agenda for the Joseph City Council when it met Thursday, Aug. 5.

“It’s my opinion we need an ordinance officer as soon as possible,” Pro-Tem Administrator Brock Eckstein said. “The city’s gone quite a while without one.”

This issue has resurfaced just a year after it was seemingly solved. In July 2020, the city hired Christian Ambroson as code enforcement officer, but he has since left the position and it’s again becoming apparent that he needs to be replaced.

“We’re started to see some issues around town — RVs on right-of-ways, properties that need attention as far as derelict cars and trash and debris in the yards and whatnot,” Eckstein said. “We initially had this job as a part-time position, but there hasn’t been any interest in that. I would recommend that this job be elevated to a full-time position. It’s my personal belief that there’s more than enough work to support this as a full-time position if we can make it work with our budget. This could also help alleviate … things like illegal short-term housing that’s going on — we’ve had numerous complaints about that — and we just don’t have the staff to follow up on a lot of these cases. As you know, some of these short-term rentals are taking the places of possible long-term housing, which there is a shortage of.”

Municipal judge?

Councilor Lisa Collier asked that if the city hires a code enforcement officer, can the city hire a municipal judge to render decisions on citations and fines.

Eckstein said the city charter allows for the hiring of a judge. But more backup is needed.

“You’ve got to have a council and administration that supports your ordinance officer,” he said. “I’ve seen ordinance officers come and go and the main reason they go is not necessarily the inaction of the citizens, but they’ll make a decision and the council or the administrator won’t back them up.”

Eckstein emphasized that a municipal judge to rule on citations issued by the code enforcement officer can be beneficial.

“When you get to ordinances, you’re not trying to fine people to make money. You want compliance,” he said. “Sometimes it takes a ticket to get people’s attention, to get them on the right track. A judge has the authority to suspend that fine so long as they come into compliance.”

But having a judge isn’t necessarily the only option.

Eckstein said another is to assign a lien to the violator’s property, but he called that “less productive,” since the city often can’t collect until the property is sold.

Councilors asked if city attorney Wyatt Baum could act as municipal judge, but Baum said that would be a conflict of interest. If a defendant hired an attorney, Baum’s job is to represent the city.

Eckstein said there are unallocated funds in the city budget that could be assigned to pay a judge if the council enacts a resolution to that effect.

The council voted to upgrade the code enforcement officer position from part- to full-time.

In other matters, the council:

• Agreed that professional staffing agency would be engaged to find a permanent city administrator, upon the recommendation of Eckstein.

• Was told by Eckstein that two vacant positions in the Public Works Department and City Hall had been filled. The city still has an opening for a utility biller and will start interviews Aug. 18.

• Approved a recommendation by Eckstein that city Administrative Assistant Jamie Collier be granted the authority to pay up to $1,500 or to sign a contract for that amount when Eckstein is unavailable.

• Heard from Eckstein that the city is slated to receive about $250,000 under the federal American Rescue Plan and that paperwork was signed earlier that day to facilitate it. Eckstein recommended city committees decide on several items they’d like to see purchased. The government wants the money spent on expenses incurred because of the coronavirus pandemic, and wages are not included in the allowable items.

“It’s not something you can save in the bank; they want to see this money spent,” he said.

• Was told of a League of Oregon Cities conference in October that Eckstein recommends councilors attend. He said the city gets one scholarship and has money budgeted for councilor training that could fund others.