MONROE — Following a major code enforcement push throughout the city, Monroe officials are considering hiring a full-time contact code enforcement officer to do the job.

They are looking to hire a familiar face to many, Jeff Neises, the Contact Code Enforcement Officer for the city who has been inspecting for the past year or so on a contract basis. As a full-time employee, he would earn a salary of roughly $70,000 per year.

Nieses over the past year was involved in a code enforcement effort that saw over 500 properties initially identified as not being up to code. Many of those were brought into compliance, with Nieses coordinating the improvements to properties with the public.

City codes regulate everything from peeling paint to structural integrity issues. Paint, in fact, is a major issue because of the number of wooden frame structures in town. After the 2015 building code was approved — and the subsequent resignation of the Monroe building inspector in 2021 — the city looked to Lakeside Consultants to help with enforcement and zoning. 

In tandem with Lakeside, they in turn recruited Neises, a local contractor, to oversee the department’s efforts and during his first wave of inspections, the city sent over 230 violation notices; and within a month about 139 of those were fixed.

But their contract with Lakeside ended “abruptly” in February when officials began considering bringing those functions in house, according to outgoing City Administrator David Lothspeich in a memo to the common council on the matter.

The move was approved in committee and was scheduled to be on the agenda for the Monday, March 6, council meeting. The meeting was held just after the newspaper’s deadline.

“As with the general labor market, attracting and hiring qualified employees has increasingly become more difficult,” Lothspeich wrote in his memo to the council recommending the change. “This challenge has been particularly difficult for public sector services that are specialized and for building inspectional services the lower number of people interested in and choosing careers in trades has greatly reduced the labor pool for building inspections and code enforcement.”

Meanwhile, in other personnel moves, the city is considering contracting with a search firm that specializes in public employees to hire an interim city administrator to take over for Lothspeich. 

Lothspeich, who came to Monroe from the northern Chicago suburbs — and was commuting several days each week from more than an hour away — submitted his resignation on Jan. 30. It is effective on March 17. Lothspeich is taking a similar administrator job with the Town of Williams Bay near Lake Geneva, where Lothspeich has a home.

The council is considering hiring Northbrook, Ill.-based GovTemps to find a candidate for the post of interim administrator. GovTempsUSA, a subsidiary of GovHR USA, is a national public-sector staffing firm specializing in the temporary placement of positions in local government.

Officials said they will continue the search for a permanent replacement for Lothspeich, whom was praised for his work during his tenure as city administrator in Monroe.