MT. MORRIS, Michigan — Being a proud mom could cost Angela Daniels up to $500 and/or 90 days in jail.

Daniels thought she was just supporting her son, Jose Saldana, a defensive middle linebacker for the Mt. Morris varsity football team, when she bought a $10 lawn sign from the school athletic boosters and posted it in her front yard.

Turns out Daniels violated the city’s sign ordinance.

She received a notice on Oct. 14 saying she had five days to remove the sign from her front yard.

“I’m upset about it,” said Daniels, vice president of the Mt. Morris Athletic Boosters. “You’re supporting your hometown football team. I’m supporting my son, not to mention Mt. Morris athletics.”

The city’s crackdown has outraged Daniels and other residents who plan to attend Monday’s City Council meeting and have formed a Facebook group page to encourage others to attend.

The 18-inch by 24-inch plastic sign that reads “Mt. Morris Athletics Boosters, Home of a Varsity Panther, Good Luck!” now rests against her porch, she said.

Warning letters have been sent to several residents, but no one has been cited, said Mt. Morris Police Chief Keith Becker. Violation of any city ordinance carries a fine of up to $500 and the possibility of 90 days in jail.

The city’s new part-time code enforcement officer — hired about eight months ago after the city was without one for more than three years — is just doing his job, Becker said.

City Manager Jake LaFurgey said it’s not about discouraging support, but enforcing an ordinance.

“If you’re going to pass an ordinance and you’re not going to enforce it, don’t bother spending the money to create it,” he said.

If residents want to change the ordinance, they need to go before the City Council, LaFurgey said.

That’s exactly what John Nutzmann, 62, intends to do.

Nutzmann put his athletic boosters sign out last week in support of other residents. His warning notice come on Wednesday.

Nutzmann, a member of the athletic boosters, said he put the sign in his yard regularly in 2005 when his son was on the varsity football team and was never asked to take it down.

“I think the signs should be allowed because they are not in any way causing a hazard. They’re not very big,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense that you in any way would want to hinder the support for the kids and the district.”

The council meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Mt. Morris City Hall, 11649 N. Saginaw St.