(a) General Penalty. Unless another penalty is expressly provided for by this Code for the violation of any particular provision or section, every person found responsible for a violation of this Code shall be guilty of a Municipal civil infraction and shall pay a civil fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) plus costs, damages, and expenses as follows:
(1) A person found responsible by the judge or district court magistrate for any violation of this Code charged as a Municipal civil infraction shall pay the stipulated civil fine and costs to be determined by the court or magistrate, which may include all expenses, direct and indirect, to which the Village has been put in connection with the Municipal civil infraction, up to the entry of the judgment. Costs of not less than nine dollars ($9.00) or more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) shall be ordered.
(2) In addition to ordering the defendant to pay a civil fine, costs, damages, and expenses, the judge or district court magistrate may issue such writs or injunctive orders as necessary to abate a nuisance as provided in M.C.L.A. 600.2940, or issue any judgment, writ or order necessary to enforce a Village ordinance as provided in M.C.L.A. 600.8302.
(3) If a defendant fails to comply with an order or judgment issued pursuant to this section within the time prescribed by the Court, the Court may proceed under M.C.L.A. 600.8729 and M.C.L.A. 600.8731. A defendant who fails to answer a citation or notice to appear in court for a Municipal civil infraction is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) and imprisonment for not more than ninety days, or both, plus court costs for each offense.
(4) If a defendant does not pay a civil fine or costs or expenses or an ordered installment payment within thirty days after the date on which payment is due in a Municipal civil infraction action brought for a violation involving the use or occupation of land or a building or other structure, the Village may obtain a lien against the land, building or structure involved in the violation by recording a copy of the court order requiring payment of the fine, costs, and expenses with the Eaton County Register of Deeds containing the legal description of the property, which lien may be recorded and enforced in the manner provided by M.C.L.A. 600.8731.
(5) In a Municipal civil infraction action involving the use or occupancy of land or a building or other structure, a copy of the citation need not be personally served upon the alleged violator but may be served upon an owner or occupant of the land, building, or structure by posting the copy on the land or attaching the copy to the building or structure. In addition, a copy of the citation shall be sent by first-class mail to the owner of the land, building, or structure at the owner's last known address.
(6) Each act of violation and every day upon which a violation shall occur shall constitute a separate offense.
(b) Surcharges; Equitable Remedies. The imposition of any penalty provided for in this section shall be in addition to any surcharge levied for a violation or for noncompliance with a provision of these Codified Ordinances, or a provision of a technical or other code adopted by reference in these Codified Ordinances, or a rule, regulation or order promulgated or made under authority of either, or of State law, and shall be in addition to any equitable remedy provided by a provision of these Codified Ordinances, or a provision of a technical or other code adopted by reference in these Codified Ordinances, or a rule, regulation or order promulgated or made under authority of either, or of State law, including the enforced removal of prohibited conditions.
(c) Complicity. Every person concerned in the commission of an offense under these Codified Ordinances, whether he or she directly commits the act constituting the offense or procures, counsels, aids or abets in its commission, may be prosecuted, indicted, tried and on conviction shall be punished as if he or she had directly committed such offense.
(Ord. 99-1. Passed 7-12-99.)