Southold Town will soon offer a way for officials to react in real time to code enforcement complaints.
The discussion came up at today’s special town board meeting, during which the town board was presented with Supervisor Scott Russell’s tentative $42.9 million budget. The board will now have time to review the budget and make changes. The board must submit the budget by Oct. 20 and set a public hearing.
After the public weighs in at the hearing, the budget must be adopted by November 20.
During the discussion, board members asked about code enforcement. Russell said his tentative budget proposes the hiring of a new full-time code enforcement officer. Currently, the town has one full-time and has made a decision to hire one part-time officer; the new officer will bring that number to two full-time and one part-time.
According to Russell, interviews for the part-time officer are complete. At Tuesday’s executive session, the board will discuss candidates. Once a consensus is reached, a resolution to hire that individual will be on the agenda for the night’s meeting. The full-time officer cannot be hired until after the first of the year. The position has not yet been created; once it has, the board can obtain the civil service list, interview, then hire the new person.
In addition, Assistant Town Attorney Steve Kiely said an online complaint form has been developed, so that code enforcement can react in real time to potential code violations.
The board said possible administrative help might be needed for the code enforcement department. As it stands now, Kiely said, if a phone call with a complaint comes in during the evening hours, it takes until the next business day before the concern can be addressed.
The code enforcement officer often has to listen to voicemail, and write all the information on a form. The new online form, which code enforcement officers could access in real time with iPads, Kiely said, will allow code enforcement to “bypass” that process with new technology and respond immediately.
“Code enforcement should be in the field, not in the office doing paperwork,” Kiely said, adding that the goal is to go paperless. Down the line, as the town becomes more proactive with enforcement, he agreed additional support staff might be necessary.
Councilwoman Jill Doherty asked if the funding for the iPads was in the budget; Russell said it was.
Doherty also asked if the police dispatcher could be emailed with the complaints, so if “something turns violent,” code enforcement officers will have help at the ready.
Russell said once a resident fills out the complaint form and hits “send,” all information will go directly to Kiely, code enforcement, and, at Doherty’s suggestion, to the police.
“This will allow us to act quickly on complaints,” Russell said. “Typically if someone wants to file a complaint outside of working hours, they have to wait until Monday morning.”
Depending on the nature of the complaint, Russell said sometimes, residents can call the police department directly. “But people are hesitant to do that,” he said. “This online form will allow us to evaluate the complaint, what action needs to be taken immediately and which officers should be engaged to act on it.”
The new part-time code enforcement officer will be able to respond regardless of the time or day, Russell said. “The benefit is that we can immediately evaluate the complaint and an immediate response can be taken.”
The Greenport Village board recently discussed setting up a similar code enforcement complaint hot line.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story was unclear; the part-time code enforcement officer has not yet been hired. The story has been updated to clarify.
