Meet Longboat's new face of code enforcement

The town of Longboat Key’s code enforcement is back down to one person, the new face of the department, Bryan Wisnom. 

Chris Kopp served as the sole code enforcement officer until November of last year and has left the town to work for Manatee County. 

In his place, Wisnom remains and will be taking over Kopp’s responsibilities. 

Before he moved to Longboat Key, Wisnom served in the Maryland State Police Department as part of its SWAT team. A heart attack caused him to look into a career change and change of pace. 

“I moved to this area to eventually retire, which I did for a short period of time,” he said. “Then, I got bored and knew I needed some interaction with people.”

He has enjoyed the laidback lifestyle of living on the Key and getting to know residents through his work. 

Typically, code enforcement is made aware of violations through phone calls made by residents. Then a code-enforcement officer will drive out to the location of the violation. Rarely are citations written then and there. More often, the resident is made aware of the violation and comes into compliance at that time or shortly after. 

“This (job) is perfect because it’s just interacting with people and getting them to comply,” Wisnom said. “That’s what code enforcement is about. We are the middle person that gets them where they need to be.”

When he moved to Longboat Key, he knew that he wanted to work on the island as the commute can be unfavorable. He applied for the code enforcement officer position in 2020, but it was given to Kopp instead. 

In the meantime, he worked for the town’s Public Works department in utilities, specifically in the water department starting in February 2020. 

He enjoyed his time with Public Works, but when the additional code enforcement officer position opened up, the town approached him to see if he would be interested in changing roles. 

While Kopp has been on board, Wisnom has primarily been overseeing short-term rentals — the violation the pair see the most. 

“(I’ve) mainly been getting the (short-term rental) program up and running,” Wisnom said. 

The pair hosted their first workshop on the topic for rental owners to learn more about the program, what is needed to register and the process. About 12 people attended, which may seem like a small number, but was much larger than either Kopp or Wisnom expected. Wisnom said he has also been getting frequent calls from rental owners hoping to learn more and get the process started before the program officially starts Oct. 1. 

“I feel there is going to be a lot of early registrations,” he said. “That’s the goal we are trying to achieve, so we don’t get a bullrush on Oct.1.”

Even before Kopp had looked into a career change, he knew that ensuring Wisnom was comfortable with doing every job in the department was important. Since Wisnom’s start date, he has been working with Kopp to learn the ins and outs of running code enforcement on his own. 

“Whether it’s law enforcement or the military, it’s kind of that next-man-up mentality,” Kopp said. “Everybody needs to learn everybody else’s job because I could not be here tomorrow. … From day one, when he got here, my goal was to teach him everything that I do.”