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The form of the initiative petition, the circulating thereof and securing of signatures to the same, and the form of the ballot to be used in submitting a proposed ordinance to the electors of the City shall be in accordance with and determined by the general laws governing the initiative in State measures.
THE REFERENDUM
No franchise, ordinance, resolution or measure passed by the City Council, except however, that, whenever the Council is by law required to pass more than one ordinance, resolution or other measure to complete the legislation necessary to make and pay for any public improvement, the provisions of this article shall apply only to the first ordinance, resolution and other measure relative thereto; ordinances or other measures providing for appropriations for the current expenses of the City, or for street improvements petitioned for by the owners of a majority of the feet front of the property benefitted and to be especially assessed for the cost thereof as provided by this Charter; ordinances or resolutions passed for the purpose of borrowing money by refunding bond, note, or certificates of indebtedness; and ordinances such as are provided in Section 73, shall go into effect until thirty days after its passage. If within said thirty days a petition, signed by not less than ten (10) percent of the qualified electors of the City based upon the number of votes cast for Mayor at the last Municipal election, requesting the repeal or submission to a referendum of said ordinance be presented to the Council, the same shall thereupon be suspended from going into operation, and it shall be the duty of the Council to reconsider such ordinance. If upon such reconsideration said ordinance is not repealed the Council may, after the form, sufficiency and legality of the petition shall have been determined and certified by the Director of Law, submit the ordinance to a vote of the electors of the City at a regular or special election which may be called, at the discretion of the Council. If upon reconsideration by the Council such ordinance is lost, or if the Council fails to submit such ordinance to a referendum after the presentation of such petition requesting a referendum the same shall be null and void. If approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon at a referendum election such ordinance shall immediately go into effect.
Ordinances passed as emergency measures or measures necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety shall be subject to referendum in like manner as other ordinances except that they shall go into effect at the time indicated in such ordinances. If, when submitted to a vote of the electors, an emergency measure is not approved by a majority voting thereon, it shall be considered repealed as regards any further action thereunder; but such measure so repealed shall be deemed sufficient authority for payment in accordance with the ordinance, of any expense incurred previous to the referendum vote thereon.
If by proper petition a referendum vote be required upon any ordinance providing for the expenditure of money, a bond issue, or a public improvement, all steps preliminary to such actual expenditure, actual issuance of bonds, or actual execution of contract for such improvement, may be taken prior to such referendum election.
The form of referendum petitions, the circulating thereof and securing of signatures thereto, and the form of the ballot to be used in such referendum election shall be in accordance with and determined by the general laws governing the referendum on acts of the General Assembly of the State.
IMPROVEMENTS AND ASSESSMENTS
The Council shall have power by ordinance or resolution to provide for the construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance by contract or directly by the employment of labor, of all things in the nature of local improvements, and to provide for the payment of any part of the cost of any such improvement by levying and collecting special assessments upon abutting, adjacent and contiguous or other specially benefitted property. The amount assessed against the property specially benefitted to pay for such local improvements shall not exceed the amount of benefits accruing to such property. Any cost for such improvement in excess of any sum assessed therefor shall be paid by the City.
Special assessments upon property deemed benefitted by a public improvement shall be by any one of the following methods:
(a) By a percentage of the tax value of the property assessed;
(b) In proportion to the benefits which may result from the improvement;
(c) By the foot frontage of the property bounding or abutting upon the improvement.
When it is deemed necessary to make a public improvement to be paid for in whole or in part by special assessment, the Council shall declare the necessity therefor by resolution, and such resolution shall include the method of assessment, the mode of payment, and the number of annual installments. Such resolution shall thereupon be certified to the Director of Finance and Public Record, who shall thereupon proceed to make an assessment report, in accordance with the method of assessment provided in the resolution, which report shall be filed with the Council, and shall show the lots and lands assessed, and the amount of the assessments as to each, and the number of installments not exceeding ten (10), in which such assessment shall be paid.
Upon the filing of such report the Director of Finance and Public Record shall cause written notice to be served upon the owner or owners or the agent or agents of the owner or owners of each lot or parcel of land to be assessed, or upon the persons in whose names the same may be assessed for taxation upon the tax duplicate, said notice to be served as is provided for service of summons in civil action; and as to all nonresidents and persons who cannot be found, a publication of such notice shall be made at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the City. Said notice shall contain a statement of the character of the proposed improvement, the fact that the assessment report has been filed with the Council, the rate of such assessments, the number of installments, and shall set a time and place when complaints and claims will be heard before the Board of Revision of Assessments.
At the time of the passage of said resolution of necessity hereinbefore provided there shall be on file in the office of the Mayor, plans, specifications, estimates and profiles of the proposed improvement, giving all information necessary; and such plans, specifications, estimates and profiles shall be open to the inspection of all interested persons.
The Board of Revision of Assessments shall consist of the Mayor, the Director of Law and the Director of Finance and Public Record. The Mayor shall be the President of the Board and the Director of Finance and Public Record shall be the Secretary thereof. It shall meet at such times and places as is provided by its rules and shall hear all claims and objections as to the character of all improvements to be paid for in part or in whole by special assessments, the necessity therefor, and the equity of the assessments as provided in the assessment report. A majority of those constituting the Board of Revision of Assessments shall have power to determine all complaints and objections submitted to it, and as to each improvement the Board shall, after such hearing amend, equalize, and adjust the assessment report, and shall report its findings as to the necessity for the improvements and any amendments it directs in the assessments to the Council.
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