A GARDENER received a $600 fine for having a yard full of weeds but the ticket ended up being tied to drama with a city alderman. 

Pete Czosnyka installed a garden full of environmentally friendly native plants that are meant to be good for the habitat in 2011.

He was hit with a fine in 2019 over claims that his yard in Chicago, Illinois, was attracting rodents and that the weeds were growing out of control, Block City Chicago reported.

But the plants were meant to get that large, and he later proved there was no evidence of rodents.

The garden aimed to attract monarch butterflies, grasshoppers, and other insects.

Czosnyka decided to fight the fine and worked with Jeffrey P. Smith, the former chief counsel of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, on the case.

He got connected with Smith through the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which the city worked with to promote rain gardens. 

In court, they were able to prove that Czosnyka’s plants were heavily maintained.

They showed receipts for each plant to prove he knew exactly what he was growing.

Additionally, notes from an inspector said, “No rodent activity was noted on the entire property,” Block Club Chicago reported.

A judge declared that the city’s case was disproven and the fines were dropped.

CITY ALDERMAN INVOLVEMENT

The story took an interesting twist in 2023 when The Chicago Board of Ethics fined Alderman Jim Gardiner of the city’s 45th ward $20,000 for sending the plant violations to Czosnyka.

Alderman is another word for a municipal legislator or city councilperson.

Czosnyka had criticized Gardiner’s political position in the past on social media and via complaints filed with the inspector general and city board of ethics.

The board found the alderman decided to retaliate against Czosnyka by directing a city employee to issue “unfounded citations,” local PBS member WTTW in Chicago reported.

“Jimmy is such a snowflake, he employs his friends to gang up on people who disagree with him,” Czosnyka told independent news outlet WGN in 2023.

Gardiner was found to have committed 10 total violations of Chicago’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance, five violations of his fiduciary duty to the city, and five violations for unauthorized use of city property, according to the board.

His violations were the “first-ever finding of probable cause in an inspector general ethics investigation of a sitting member of City Council,” officials said.

“The arc of corruption in Chicago is long,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg told WTTW in 2023.

“We are bending it back. It should and does send a message that bad actors will be held accountable.

“Those who abuse positions of public trust will be punished for doing so.”

Gardiner still serves as an alderman for the 45th ward.

The U.S. Sun reached out to the Chicago Board of Ethics and Gardiner for comment.