Lansford Borough Council on Tuesday officially authorized its code enforcement officer to issue quality of life, property maintenance and code citations.

The police union in the past has raised jurisdictions issues over quality of life citations, while at least one resident said the borough’s ordinance on quality of life doesn’t specify police as the sole source for these citations.

Council President Bruce Markovich said the borough’s position is that the code officer can issue tickets, even though the police union raised jurisdiction issues over the practice.

Borough Solicitor Bob Yurchak said he wanted council to take action to clarify the matter, as there are ordinance sections that refer to a police officer, or any public officer, enforcing ordinances.

Yurchak explained that with official action, should there be a jurisdiction issue raised, he could take it up with the police union’s attorney.

Councilman Jack Soberick, a retired police chief, said the confusion over quality of life may have arisen when he was still a sergeant on the force and duplicate citations were a problem.

Both police and code can issue citations, he said, but there needs to be coordination between the two departments so people don’t get multiple citations for the same offense.

Another solution would be to obtain another license for the report management system that the police uses, and the two departments can see what properties have been cited, Soberick said. The license is about $2,000, he said.

Code Enforcement Officer Shane Monk told council that he was following the solicitor’s advice on citing properties, but hasn’t been able to write any citations because he can’t get citation books from the police department.

Markovich told him that the borough is rectifying that and citation books are on the way.

In another matter, council also authorized juvenile probation offenders to clear pathways in Kennedy Park on July 3. Councilwoman Gwyneth Collevechio said they will edge the paths and they will be supervised.