Council approves first reading of ordinance to let city manager designate interdepartmental enforcement teams

The City Council on March 11 voted to introduce and pass on first reading an ordinance amending a city code section to permit delegation of certain enforcement authorities to the city manager, a change staff says will allow interdepartmental teams to respond to complaints more efficiently.

The change matters because staff said current code provisions can produce operational "silos" where different departments hold narrowly defined enforcement authority, forcing multiple inspectors to respond to the same complaint rather than letting a single qualified city employee resolve the issue at the point of service.

Planning Director Karl Moritz explained that the proposed amendment updates section 1-1-11 of the City Code to allow departmental enforcement authority to be delegated to the city manager (or the city manager's designee). He said the revision is procedural and intended to enable cross-departmental staffing for initiatives such as the Mount Vernon Avenue vendor program and to reduce the need to send separate personnel from multiple departments to the same location. Moritz and council members emphasized that the change would not alter existing reporting lines, supervisory responsibility or employee performance-evaluation authorities: employees would still report to their current department heads.

Council members asked whether the change would allow one director to directly issue orders to employees in another department; staff answered that the amendment would not change departmental reporting or supervision and that any collaborative enforcement roles would be implemented through the city-manager-level delegation. Staff also said training protocols would be in place for frontline employees who will exercise enforcement authority in multidisciplinary settings.

Council voted to approve the ordinance on first reading and scheduled a public hearing and second reading for the upcoming Saturday meeting. The motion to introduce and pass the ordinance on first reading was moved by Vice Mayor Bagley and seconded by Councilman Al Newby.

Ending: Staff said the change is intended to improve resident service and operational flexibility while preserving departmental accountability and supervisory structures.