McALLEN - As the temperature climbs to a sweltering 94 degrees, Tilfred Farley drives around McAllen in a white pickup, with the tools of his trade - clipboard, walkie-talkie and laptop - at hand.

"You sweat a lot in this job," said Farley, a veteran code enforcement officer in McAllen with more than nine years on the job.

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Farley is part of the small army of city staff who work to enforce a slew of municipal ordinances designed to protect the health of residents and maintain the aesthetics of the city.

The city worker spends almost his entire day outside the office, driving around town and informing residents they need to stop their illegal dumping, mow their weedy property and stop parking on their lawns.

"Everywhere you go, there's always violations," Farley said. "You could work all night long if you wanted to."

And now, code enforcement in McAllen is getting a bit more teeth. Thanks to a reorganization of the city's enforcement efforts, code enforcement "actions," such as warning and citations, have increased more than 800 percent.

Now, "we can address everything in one place properly," said Josh Ramirez, McAllen's director of environmental services.

CROSS-TRAINING

McAllen employs about 50 code enforcement officers and inspectors throughout various city departments such as planning, health and engineering. They are City Hall's boots on the ground, tasked with enforcing ordinances - the city laws that are not part of the penal code.

Employees investigate everything from noise complaints to illegally posted signs to illegal dumping, among other issues.

Until last year, most of those employees were assigned to enforce specific categories of violations.

For example, Farley could issue a citation for a business operating out of a home - a planning and zoning issue - but he couldn't have dealt with a weedy lawn at the very same property - which is a health issue.

Now, the city is ratcheting up its efforts to address that inefficiency. Since last year, at least 80 percent of the inspectors and officers in the city have been cross-trained to address violations in multiple areas, Ramirez said.

The results have been striking and essentially have the same effect as hiring additional staff.

The number of code violations cited across the city increased from 285 in April 2008 to more than 2,400 in April 2009, Ramirez said.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Other changes have occurred as well.

A team of 16 officers - each assigned to a specific geographic zone in the city - has been assembled under Ramirez's direction. Workers like Farley spend virtually their entire day on the lookout for violations.

In a span of less than three hours last week, Farley documented two vehicles for sale on empty lots, a tractor-trailer parked in a residential area, two homes with weedy lawns, a car parked on a front lawn, an abandoned home with a murky swimming pool accessible through an open gate, and another empty home with a roof that was sagging.

All were violations of various city codes.

The reorganization comes at a time when issues surrounding code enforcement - such as a proposed sign ordinance, noisy 10th Street bars and the future of the arts district - have generated controversy in recent months.

Officers have now been told to be proactive and seek out violations instead of just responding to complaints.

And they now work night shifts, which they typically didn't do before. That has allowed them to identify problems such as valets using city-owned parking lots and businesses that are licensed as restaurants but operating as bars.

City officials stress their goal isn't to earn money from citations; rather, they are only interested in seeking compliance.

"The overall goal is quality of life," Ramirez said. "You don't want to drive through your neighborhood and see it's falling apart."

FORECLOSURES

The reorganization of the city's code enforcement efforts comes as officers continue to see more violations connected to abandoned and neglected homes.

In Hidalgo County, about 1,800 properties entered foreclosure proceedings during the first quarter 2009.

As foreclosed homes get shuffled between banks and other institutions, upkeep is often ignored.

Other violations are often attributed to the sagging economy as well. Farley said he has seen more illegal dumping because it costs money to take debris to the city dump. He has also seen an increase in illegal roadside food sales as people try to make a few extra bucks during the tough economic times.

Meanwhile, the construction slowdown has allowed some employees who would usually spend time inspecting newly constructed buildings to move into enforcing other city codes that fall into areas like planning and health, City Manager Mike Perez said.

MILES TO GO?

But some say the city isn't going far enough.

City Commissioner Marcus Barrera praised the reorganization but said it will still take several months to determine whether it has had a substantial effect on cleaning up the city.

"I'm a little discouraged when I'm driving down 10th Street," Barrera said. "I'm not a code enforcement officer, but I can see the violations. If we wanted a flea market on 10th Street, we would have created an ordinance that allowed it."

And Greg Townsend, a founder of the watchdog group Futuro McAllen, said while the cross-training is helpful, more work can still be done to improve code enforcement.

"I think they've got miles to go," Townsend said.

NEIGHBORS

As Farley visited a North McAllen neighborhood last week, he assisted colleague Ruben Tello who had come across a seemingly abandoned home. The pool had turned green and was a breeding ground for insects. Meanwhile, its backyard gate was stuck in the open position - making the mess easily accessible to neighborhood children and other curious residents.

As one curious neighbor stopped near the scene, Farley told him to make sure his son avoided the dangerous, empty homes on the street.

He said he would heed the warning - and provided Farley with more information about an abandoned property.

Farley realizes that, quite often, residents aren't too happy to see him knocking on their doors. But he also knows code enforcement helps neighborhoods stay clean and safe while maintaining their property values.

"I like it when a neighbor says, ‘Thank you, Mr. Farley, for giving me my neighborhood back,'" he said.

Ryan Holeywell covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.