Butler City Council on Thursday approved the retirement of Deputy Police Chief Dave Adam, who has been on paid administrative leave since last month.

Council members unanimously voted to accept Adam’s retirement after 27 years on the police force. The retirement is effective Friday.

Mayor Ben Smith placed Adam and former Chief Ron Brown, who retired on July 31, on paid leave after the union representing police department’s officers announced that members unanimously passed a no-confidence vote on Brown and Adam in June.

The union said the issues that led to the vote included a lack of leadership and poor decision making, a lack of strategy in addressing criminal activity and the lack of cooperation with the news media.

Brown’s retirement was also approved Thursday.

Adam submitted his retirement papers Thursday, Smith said.

He said he believes Adam is eligible to receive his full retirement pension.

Smith said he hasn’t made a final decision on whether to hire a new deputy chief, but is “leaning toward” not filling the position.

At Tuesday’s forum meeting, Smith said he was preparing to start the process of hiring a new police chief.

He has already named Capt. James Hollobaugh as the officer in charge of the department until a replacement chief is hired.

In a separate police related matter, council tabled action on a motion to institute a voluntary procedure in which landlords could work with police to root out drug activities from rental properties.

Smith said he, other council members and solicitor Tom Breth plan to meet with District Attorney Richard Goldinger to discuss the measure.

“I think there are a lot of issues with it. The wording is legal, but the question is, is it smart,” Smith said.

Breth said the proposal would allow police to enter rental properties, but not give them “blanket” authority to conduct searches.

Most landlords have language in their leases that allows them to enter their leased properties in the event of a natural gas leak or plumbing problem, he said. If landlords enter and suspect some illegal activity is taking place, they can call police, Breth said.

The city has prepared sample lease addendums that landlords can attach to their leases and forms that landlords agreeing to participate submit to the city.

Breth said the proposal would allow police to access the rental properties, but the procedure hasn’t been finalized.

Police would determine when it would be appropriate to use the measure, he said.

The measure boils down to landlords and police working together if tenants get involved in illegal activity, Breth said.

In another police issue, council accepted the resignation of patrol officer Corey Wendel, who took a job with another police department, and approved the conditional hiring of Michael Sulerud Jr. as a patrol officer to replace Wendel.

In other action at Thursday’s Butler City Council meeting:

Council addressed fire department issues by approving a job description for the fire chief’s position and promoting a part-time firefighter to full-time.

The city and Butler Township have agreed to share the services of a fire chief, who will be stationed in the city to oversee the city’s full-time department and work as needed to oversee the township’s three volunteer departments.

The new chief must have a bachelor’s of science degree in fire science or a related field from an accredited four-year college or university, 10 years of experience in a paid, full-time department, three years of experience in building and fire protection property inspections and certain certifications.

Also, part-time firefighter Sean Sokolowski was promoted to full-time to fill the vacancy left by Lt. Ted Codispot’s retirement in May.

Council also increased its state multimodal transportation fund grant request from $1.47 million to $2.1 million and requested the state waive the city’s requirement to provide a 30 percent match.

Council approved the first reading of an ordinance creating the Ritts Historic and Architectural District.