Lansford Borough Council on Tuesday discussed an issue with the new code officer not being able to write citations for violations.

Code officer Shane Monk told council during committee meetings that he got action on 10 properties, but was only allowed to give warnings, not citations.

“There are a handful of people not making any changes yet,” he said. “I’d personally like to be able to write a few citations. People might take it a little more seriously, but as of right now, I’m not able to do that.”

The issue involved members of the police force objecting to Monk issuing citations, saying it was their jurisdiction, Council President Bruce Markovich said.

“The police department is under the impression that they have to give him permission to issue citations,” he said, and one member of the force did not give consent.

“We are not going to seek their permission to have our employee do his job,” Markovich said. “That is not going to happen.”

Councilwoman Michele Bartek pointed out that the police don’t want to enforce quality of life complaints, and now don’t want a code officer hired by council to enforce the complaints.

“They themselves didn’t want to do it,” she said.

Monk pointed out that Chief Kyle Woodward was in favor of him issuing citations.

Markovich suggested council send the police union a letter telling them that the borough does not need their permission or consent.

“He works for the borough. He can issue citations according to his job specifications,” he said. “The police department has nothing to do with it. They don’t have a say in this.”

But no letter may be needed.

Following the meeting, Markovich and Woodward spoke regarding the code officer writing the citations.

Both reported the matter was resolved Wednesday morning.

The code officer will be able to write citations as soon as he’s assigned a state identification number, Markovich said.

The only other matters concerning code enforcement involved the borough providing Monk with a cellphone, laptop and possibly stickers to leave at properties that he visits when no one is available.

The borough is upgrading phones for its police officers, borough workers and a phone for the municipal office, and will add Monk.

Bartek suggested possibly getting an iPad for Monk, which would serve as a phone and computer.

Monk told council that he would take whatever they supplied, but a laptop was suggested because he can’t access the borough office on weekends. He said that he is flexing his schedule to cover some weekends.

He planned to use the cellphone to photograph conditions that he encounters as documentation.