Gone are the days of wearing the dress blues and armored with a gun, baton, and pepper spray.

Now, he can be seen wearing slacks and dress shirts (tie optional) each day to work.

He says it’s been a learning experience for him so far, but the move has also been an exciting one, too, as he is taking the opportunity to learn new things and adjust to his new situation.

“Anytime you’re new to a program,” Ward said, “there’s a lot of excitement behind it and I’m pretty psyched up about it. I’m having a lot of fun and the people in here (office) have just been wonderful. They’ve been patient with me and have helped me learn their processes and things like that.”

Ward said as far as the code aspect of the job, it is similar to the law enforcement side in some respects.

“You follow laws and procedures and stuff like that,” said Ward. “It’s similar in nature but it all comes from a different book!”

For Ward, he believes it’s a lot different.

“I’m having to learn a lot of things that we really didn’t tackle over there (CPD),” said Ward. “We pretty much left it up to our code enforcement officers at the city.”

Traffic codes and penal codes are some of the routine duties Ward is used to, and he can often be found reviewing most of the city’s ordinances he didn’t know existed when he is not in the field checking things out.

“To me the transition is big, whereas to others it would seem similar to what I was doing before,” he said.

Ward has found one big difference between the two jobs when he was out in the field checking out a code violation recently.

“I went to someone’s front porch,” Ward said. “I knocked on the door, and heard a dog. So here I am wearing pretty much what I have on today (describing his dress attire), and I looked around and started putting two and two together as I saw a chain leading up to the pole on the porch where I’m standing! All of a sudden I start to realize I don’t have pepper spray, and I don’t have my gun anymore, and all I can do with this dog is run!

According to Ward, in police work a lot of the stuff you deal with is on view, which means it happens … you see it and you approach people about it. With code enforcement, the officer sees it and then goes back to do a follow up, and contact the people about what violation may be taking place.

Ward said the community has been very receptive as well.

He has had people he’s never met before coming by his office to meet him and show their support.

“It’s been very humbling,” said Ward. “The people have been great here in the community! To come into a job, especially like this, it’s sure made the transition a lot easier.”

Ward, who is only a few steps away from completing his Masters Degree, will continue to learn as much as he can about the Planning and Zoning Department, and plans to attend as many seminars and schools as possible that are required of him.

He will attend a Planning and Zoning school in Arlington in the next couple of months, and another for code enforcement in another city.

Another difference he has faced is the increased number of meetings he is required to attend as a department head.

Ward is also looking forward to meeting with merchants in the downtown area, and the public in general to introduce himself and meet as many people as possible to help build a better working relationship between the public and the city.

City Manager Connie Standridge is pleased with the job Ward is doing.

“He seems to be fitting in and catching on … falling into place real well,” said Standridge. “I’m very pleased with him.”

Standridge said she has seen some things that she has noticed in the past that have been corrected, and likes the progress Ward has made so far.

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