Additionally, the Council voted to appoint Town Manager David Hazlett as zoning officer and code enforcement officer until the board elects to fill those positions with new hires or through contracted services.

Council President Richard Matthews said, "We (Matthews and Councilman Robert Verderaime) now have a draft of a policy and procedures manual for code enforcement we have been working on, and also some code language."

"What we're really trying to do is piece together all this stuff we've been collecting the past year and create a system that is compliance-driven from the friendly side," Matthews said, "so that we're educating people as to what their requirements under the codes are, in trying to bring them into compliance."

The council president stated, "The ticket wouldn't be the first thing that you would issue. What you would do is you would give them a notice of non-compliance that explains why they're in non-compliance, and what they need to do to come into compliance."

"If they blow us off, then we can move to the ticketing or we can move to the citation. At that time, you're going to be making a decision based on the severity of the non-compliance," he added.

Regarding violation tickets verses citations, Matthews stated, "The ticketing is better, because, if you can get their attention, (you can) get them into compliance. If you do a citation, the next step is they get a court date."

The council also noted that revenue generated as a result of a borough ticket goes to the borough, while revenue generated by a citation goes to the county. In addition, the council president noted, "We've been told (by different municipal officials), getting it (a citation action) through the magistrate is a real challenge."

Matthews said that one strategy to ensure taking a solid case before a magistrate would be to "build a case one step at a time, so when it goes to the magistrate it's a no-brainer for the magistrate to take the side with the borough. So, that's what we're trying to create here."

The council president said an enforcement effort could begin with "a knock on the door" from an enforcement officer verbally explaining the nature of the infraction. Failing that, a letter of non-compliance could be sent, then followed by up to three tickets, and issuing a citation as a final effort.

In the interim, pending development of a new code enforcement process, lacking code and zoning enforcement personnel, the board voted to allocate those duties to the town manager.