§ 5-1114 — Violation of ordinance

(a) Except as provided in Section 10-302.5 of the Illinois Highway Code or subsection (b) of this Section, in all actions for the violation of any county ordinance, the first process shall be a summons or a warrant. A warrant or summons for the arrest of an accused person may issue from the circuit court upon the affidavit of any person that an ordinance has been violated, and that the person making the complaint has reasonable grounds to believe that the party charged is guilty thereof. Every person arrested upon a warrant or summons shall be taken, without unnecessary delay, before the proper judicial officer for trial. (b) In the case of a violation of the property maintenance code of the county by a repeat offender, service of process against the owner of the property that is the subject of the violation may be a notice to appear. The notice may be issued by a code enforcement officer of the county where the violation occurred subject to the approval of an ordinance administrator. The notice to appear shall, at a minimum, state the address of the property that is the subject of the code violation, the language and citation of the code provision that was violated, the facts that the violation is based on, the date, time, and location for the appearance by the property owner, and that failure to correct the violation prior to the hearing date may result in a fine. The notice to appear shall be served upon the property owner, either personally, or by delivery confirmation mail and first class mail. The violation notice shall be sent to the address where the violation is observed and to the property owner's address on file with the Supervisor of Assessments office. The county shall simultaneously post the notice on the property where the violation occurred. The date to appear shall be no sooner than 15 days after the notice is served upon the owner. If the owner of the property fails to appear in response to the notice, the Court may issue a warrant or summons in accordance with subsection (a) of this Section. For the purposes of this Section, "repeat offender" means a person who has been found guilty of 2 or more similar violations of a property maintenance code at the same location in a 36-month period.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 97-561, eff. 1-1-12.)