By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – In his campaign to become Clallam County’s Director of Community Development, one of the promises Bruce Emery made to voters was to get the code enforcement team the support they need to clear the enormous backlog of cases that currently exists.

This month, Emery asked County Commissioners to approve an additional $65,000 for his department to hire another full-time code enforcement officer. It’s expected to be approved later this month.

“1.6 field officers is inadequate. That’s why we pushed for adding an additional field officer, as well as an administrative position to be able to handle the call load. You know, we’re starting this year with about 450 cases, and even though they’ve somewhat been keeping pace with the caseload as it comes in, we haven’t been gaining on it. And so, that’s the biggest indicator that we need more bodies working towards that.”

The addition of 1 more officer will bring his enforcement staff to 2.6 full time equivalents, still a pretty bare bones crew given the caseload.

“You know, the other piece of this puzzle is, there’s a lot of attrition when it comes to code enforcement, and having a small field staff just leaves us vulnerable. If, for example, one moves on, we’re losing all that institutional knowledge and we’re basically having to start from zero again. So it’s good to have a number of bodies who have become familiar with it and can help cross-train and familiarize new hires and so forth with what the job entails and what they need to know.”

Emery mentioned the high attrition rate among code enforcement officers, usually by way of resignation or termination. We asked him to describe what it is about the job that would account for that.

“Primarily, it’s the interface. You’re dealing with people who you’re either investigating and they get upset. You’re also dealing with people who are frustrated with things that they’re seeing that someone else is doing on their land, and they’re wanting to see results. We have to follow processes and that’s usually is timely. So, the folks who are complaining tend to get frustrated, and the folks who are being investigated get frustrated. So, pretty much everybody you’re dealing with has a frustration level. And part of the skill set of a good code enforcement officer, they have to be able to calm people down, deescalate a situation, and try to gain compliance.”

Does this sound like the job for you? Emery says he expects to be able to advertise for the job sometime in the near future, and we’ll let you know when that happens.

(Photo; Bruce Emery)