SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO An aerial view of Williamsport’s residential neighborhoods.

Williamsport City Council recently approved a resolution authorizing an agreement between the city and Barry Isett, a third-party codes and zoning service.

Mayor Derek Slaughter said the resolution will be for a zoning enforcement officer while the city has that position advertised.

The application process is on the city website to fill the vacancy left by Gary Knarr, who retired as zoning administrator and codes office enforcement administrator.

“We have a lot of requests for zoning coming in and a lot of permits that need to be reviewed go out the door,” Slaughter said, as a reason for presenting the resolution for consideration.

Slaughter said he along with Councilman Vince Pulizzi are working with the city labor attorney on codes-related issues that he offered to have an executive session on as they were personnel related.

This is an interim plan and the city is looking forward to seeing what applications it gets for the zoning officer, Slaughter noted.

Those that have begun to come in have not been remotely close to the qualifications Knarr possessed, he said.

Once the city works with its labor attorney and the state Labor Relations Board the city can look at longer-term items, the mayor said.

“So, this is temporary, correct?” asked Councilman Adam Yoder.

“Do we have a timeline?” he asked, adding the zoning officer is a council appointment.

Slaughter replied that if the city were to receive a quality applicant tomorrow it would be on the council agenda in two weeks.

Slaughter reiterated the interim plan was proposed because the city received so many emails regarding zoning items.

Councilwoman Liz Miele said what the city needs to decide on is the timeline of if it does not find a successful applicant and looking at perhaps a request for proposals for these services.

“How long have we contracted with Isett?” she asked. “For the Building Codes Officer (BCO)?” Slaughter asked her in response. “Like 2-years (ish)?” Miele asked. “Probably, yeah, probably about two years or so,” Slaughter said.

If the city is looking long-term at adding to the scope of that contract then I would like to see us put some thought into what that looks like for the codes department as a whole, and put it out for an RFP instead of simply extending our services with a company,” she said.

Not that Miele would be against Isett submitting an RFP for that service, and possibly getting it, but she thought the city needed a more holistic plan to see what sort of services are out there.

Miele said she would like to see whoever is handling these issues be nearby the city, if not in the city, because there are some aspects with codes management that are better done closer to home.

To Yoder’s point, there may be a need to decide on an RFP if there is no indication of a qualified applicant to be hired because it sounds to me like you are saying that might happen.

“I completely agree with you,” Slaughter said.

“We’ve been exploring a number of options, including that,” he said.

Emails are filling up, including those from individuals who are waiting on an outdoor event permit and other permitting.