The ordinance makes violators liable for a fine of up to $1,000 or up to six months in jail, but judges have discretion to set the penalty, and no one has ever gotten the maximum, officials said.
Sixteen towns, including Orange and Woodbridge, have already passed such an ordinance, she said, subjecting violators to a fine.
Violators of the ordinance face a fine up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail.
Under the ordinance, police officers must offer violators a chance to stay in a homeless shelter and those who refuse may be arrested or fined.
Under this rule, the restaurateur would be required to equip each customer, on entrance, with a microphone-cable-earphone assembly so that normal conversation is feasible; and it would provide that violators of the ordinance be sentenced, for each offense, to four hours of forced listening at close range to a sustained montage of leafblowers, pneumatic drills and jet plane takeoffs.
The ordinance imposes a $250 fine on violators, but Larry Cantwell, the village administrator, said residents would be given time to comply with the new standards.
Violators of quality-of-life ordinances were typically slapped on the wrist, with little worry that the police would follow up on a judge's orders.
Maldonado was on her daily rounds--looking for violators of the city's street vending ordinance, adopted a year ago with strict rules and stiff penalties.
A proposed ordinance designed to curb panhandling would ban loitering on median strips, with violators subject to a $500 fine and six months in jail.
