The mayor of Roswell thinks he has seen the chicken scratches on the wall.

“No way we are going to be looking good regardless of what comes out of the court,” Wood said.

The comments came in an informal discussion with Councilman Rich Dippolito following adjournment of a council workshop meeting last week.

Wood was referring to the code enforcement case against Roswell resident Andrew Wordes for keeping chickens illegally in a residential neighborhood, which has caused a media furor in part because former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes is Wordes’ attorney

The mayor asked Dippolito, who is the council liaison to the community development department, to consider initiating a rewrite of the city’s zoning ordinance dealing with keeping livestock as pets.

Wood said he would like Dippolito and city staff to craft proposed changes to the ordinance to allow home-raised chickens under certain conditions before the code enforcement case comes to judgment in mid-May.

“I’d like to see it go to [council] committee and then allow it to go to mayor and council,” he told Dippolito. “Because this is not going to go away and it’s probably not going to resolve itself.”

Dippolito told Wood he would take the mayor’s request “under advisement.”

The following morning, Dippolito said he would have to talk to council members individually about initiating an ordinance change right now. At last month’s committee meeting, council members said they wanted to wait for the court case to play out prior to considering any changes in the chicken rules.

“The sentiment may have changed. I’ll look at it,” he said.

This week, Wood said he believes the case has become high profile not only due to Barnes’ involvement, but because “a city is overreaching itself. The basic principle is we shouldn’t be in people’s back yards.”

Wordes, who lives on an acre of land in a neighborhood off of Alpharetta Street, has had his pet chickens in coops in his fenced-in back yard for several years. Code enforcement cited him in February after receiving a complaint.

Barnes has asked the municipal court to dismiss the case because he contends the wording of the ordinance Wordes has allegedly violated is ambiguous. In such cases, Barnes said, the interpretation of the law must favor the citizen rather than the government.

The mayor said media would probably lose interest if the city delayed prosecution of the case while it develops “reasonable rules and regulations” on the chicken issue.

Then, Wood said, “it ceases to become a news story.”