Umatilla residents violating the city’s nuisance code will be cited immediately rather than being given a warning first.

The City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday, Sept. 1, changing the Code Improvement Board to the Code Enforcement Board and making it the judging body for code violations.

In the past, the city’s code enforcement officer has issued a warning to violators, automatically giving them five days to abate the nuisance on their property or go see a judge. Under Ordinance 807 the officer will issue a citation immediately upon seeing a violation and the violator will have until the next meeting of the Code Enforcement Board to abate it.

If the nuisance is still there when the board meets, the board can decide to give the person more time, levy a fine, hold their landlord responsible or take other action.

“It gives us a lot more flexibility,” said Bob Ward, city manager.

He said the city has been taking a “kinder, gentler approach” to code enforcement but allowing the code enforcement officer to issue a citation the first time will improve the strength of its enforcement. Police chief Darla Huxel said the change gives code enforcement more teeth.

“When you hand someone a citation they know they have to take action immediately,” she said.

On Tuesday, the council also took a number of other actions, including the approval of a ballot drop box outside City Hall. Ward said the city usually gets a few people trying to drop off their ballot at City Hall even though the nearest drop-off site is currently in Hermiston. Ballots in Oregon go by date received, not postmark, and Ward said county officials were worried about the loss of Pendleton’s mail-sorting center.

“With the mail going to Portland and then back to Pendleton it would be very easy for a citizen to miss that deadline,” he said.

The council also granted a temporary sales license for alcohol to Steve Bunn of Honey Bunnz Hideout after previously refusing a last-minute request to put the item on their August agenda. The license is for a beer garden behind the strip club’s wooden fence to celebrate its one-year anniversary on Sept. 11-12.

At the beginning of the meeting Bunn said he was tired of the city discriminating against him since he opened the club. He said he was recently denied a locksmith license despite 17 years of experience in Hermiston and has been hassled about his living quarters, too.

“I don’t appreciate being treated that way,” he said.

The council approved the OLCC license, with the stipulation he end at 1 a.m. instead of his requested time of 2 a.m.