LOCAL

Destin hires former Portage, Indiana police chief to be code compliance director

Tina Harbuck
The Destin Log

With much talk about code enforcement and being proactive at recent meetings, the City of Destin voted to hire Troy Williams as the code compliance director at its Feb. 6 meeting. 

Troy Williams was recently hired as the code compliance director for the City of Destin.

Williams came as a recommendation from City Manager Lance Johnson. 

Williams has 28 years of law enforcement experience and eight as police chief of Portage, Indiana. 

Johnson pointed out a couple of things that pushed Williams to the forefront as his pick. 

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“He is familiar with harbor districts because they have one there as well,” Johnson said. 

Plus, in Portage, code enforcement fell under the jurisdiction of the police department. 

“So, he’s very familiar with the code enforcement,” Johnson said. 

"He was the strongest candidate and best fit for us,” the city manager said. 

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Williams joined the council meeting via an online call. 

“It’s a privilege even to be considered,” Williams said. 

Council member Dewey Destin questioned how much time he spent on code enforcement in law enforcement. 

“While it was not the day in, day out … it was something we did as a police department and I understand the process,” Williams said. 

Council member Destin made mention that code compliance may be a little different in Destin. Nevertheless, he said, “I’m going to support you.” 

The vote was unanimous to hire Williams. 

“Welcome to the team,” Mayor Bobby Wagner said. 

“I’m going to give you everything I have and then some,” Williams said. 

Williams will start the second week in April. 

But before then, code compliance was scheduled to be on the agenda for the Visioning Session, which was slated for Feb. 16. The council is looking to prioritize some of the things to be addressed such as parking in rights-of-way, livery situation on the harbor, and signage in the rights-of-way, just to name a few.