Yep we been going through the same crap in our town. Property taxes falling due to foreclosures and real estate prices crashing meaning local tax levies producing less and less drying up the city coffers.
So the brilliant new female mayor decides to suddenly enforce a badly worded ordinance that makes anyone who owns a recreational camping trailer and parks it on there property in violation if they don't move it every 48 hours. (The ordinance was to keep people leaving junk cars sitting around in their yards. At one time it got pretty bad around here with dozens of housing with up to 15 cars on their property and not one capable of being driven.)
The service director issued 23 fines in a single day at 500 bucks a piece. Two days later his car and the mayors both got cement blocks through the windshield with notes attached saying change the ordinance now.
Council repealed the law unanimously and also repealed it retroactively so none of the fines issued were valid. No one investigated the windshield incidents because they knew no one was gonna talk.
And this is how to get things done. It's the only thing they understand.