PORT ANGELES – One Port Angeles city council member says he remains adamantly opposed to raising property taxes to pay for code enforcement.

Jim Moran says the city needs to come up with a better plan to restart the program dealing with junk vehicles, overgrown grass and other code infractions.

In an interview with KONP’s “Todd Ortloff Show”, Moran says he supports restarting the code enforcement position, but the city could find other ways to pay for it.

The city council last week voted 4-3 to move forward with a plan that included raising property taxes three percent along with adding traffic cameras and other fees to pay for what is estimated to be about a 200-thousand-dollar-a-year program.

Moran says although the tax hike is fairly small, he disagrees on principle.

Moran, who has a degree in accounting, says the city could find a third of the cost by updgrading it’s telephone and IT services, that are old and costly.

The city scraped its code enforcement program seven years ago due to budget issues. But restarting code enforcement has become one of the top priorities for the council this year, provided it can be paid for.