BROCTON — A proposal for the village and the town of Portland to share a code enforcement officer is moving ahead.

Town officials want to do it, Brocton Mayor Richard Frost told an Oct. 16 meeting of the village Board of Trustees. The proposal on the table is that Portland pays two-third’s of the person’s salary, and Brocton pays one-third, based on the population in each municipality. The entire cost is to be paid up-front by Portland and Brocton gets billed for its share.

The trustees voted to agree, in principle, to share the officer with the town. Portland’s government will be the lead agency on the hire.

“We know this is something new and we can tweak it as we go along,” said Trustee Carol Horlacher, who will sit in on the committee Portland puts together to hire the officer.

Though it looks like a formality, it’s worth noting that apparently, there is nothing officially signed yet between the two municipalities. The particulars of the position will have to be worked out with negotiations between the town and the village.

The salary itself is unclear and will likely depend on the person’s experience.

“There is no separation of hours,” Frost told the trustees. “We don’t get one third of his or her hours. It’s just a separation of cost.”

There are times Brocton issues will be a priority — and there are times they won’t be, he said. It all depends on what crosses the code enforcer’s desk.

“If he or she spends a month doing Portland work, that’s the way it is. It doesn’t matter. The job will be done,” he added.

Brocton currently has a part-time code enforcer, Alan Gustafson, who works only 10 hours a day, in an office at the Portland Town hall. Portland’s part-time code enforcement officer, Signe Rominger, works 18 hours per week.

Frost said Gustafson hardly has time to check his e-mail, let alone go out in the field to investigate code violations.

“You can’t ask somebody to do a 40-hour job and pay them for 10 hours,” the mayor said.