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Draft ordinance would let village penalize property owners for knowingly allowing illegal activity at 'bodywork' sites
Summary
The draft licensing ordinance includes a mechanism to notify property owners of illegal conduct and, if they are proven complicit, to fine them and potentially close their building for up to a year. Staff cited state lewdness statutes as a possible enforcement path for egregious cases.
Steve told the board the draft ordinance would allow the village to notify property owners when illegal conduct is found and to pursue penalties if owners knew about and allowed that conduct. “If we find out that there is illegal conduct there and the owner knew about it and we can prove the owner knew about it, we can also go through a process to go through, fines of the owner, and find the owner for knowing and allowing it to happen,” Steve said.
He added that in particularly egregious cases the village could pursue a lewdness-related provision under state law to close a building or business for up to a year if the owner is found complicit. The board discussed notifications and enforcement burdens; trustees generally supported having tools to hold owners accountable but asked staff to ensure due process and clear standards for evidence before seeking owner penalties.
Staff emphasized inspections, employee logs and adjudication hearings as the procedural path for enforcement; trustees asked staff to return with clarifications on how owner penalties would be proved and appealed.
