The Perryville Board of Aldermen last week voted to approve a measure that would more clearly define the position of code enforcement officer, moving it back under the purview of the city’s police department.
It’s a better fit there, said city administrator Brent Buerck.
“At one time, that was a police department function,” Buerck said, “then we brought it over to City Hall. We’ve returned it to the police department now. The logic being that it works best whenever it’s a [Peace Officer Standards and Training]-certified person because they have the ability to write tickets and, you know, POST certification rests with the police department.”
Since City Hall is a polling place and the general municipal election was scheduled on the same night, the board held its April 4 meeting at the Catalyst Center.
The change in venue was no obstacle to the proceedings, and Buerck said the business conducted was fairly routine, aside from the change to code enforcement.
“The city administration and Board of Aldermen will continue to work with the chief of police, but he’ll assign those duties to someone within his department,” Buerck said. “And then the big advantage is when they’re not actively doing code enforcement, they can complement the staffing needs of the police department. That was a big reason to make the move instead of having a POST certified officer at City Hall, it makes more sense to put them where they can be police officers.”
The board also approved a request to host the annual fly-in at the Perryville Regional Airport on Saturday, May 20.
“They’ve got some really cool stuff planned for the fly-in,” Buerck said. “We try to do one of these a year. This year it’s really cool because the guys have worked really hard.”
