Relation to the rules of construction for unspecified ranges of civil penalties.

This bill would apply to provisions that set forth a range of penalty amounts for a violation, where there is a specified minimum amount and either a specified maximum or no specified maximum and the provision does not otherwise specify what amount within that range should be imposed. The bill would provide that all such provisions are to be construed as creating a default penalty for a first violation that is the lowest amount in the range. Agencies and officers of the City would not be able to impose any penalty higher than the default amount unless they establish by rule the factors that would justify the imposition of a higher penalty amount.