If the petition is sufficient, the city clerk must certify its sufficiency to the council at its next meeting, stating the number of petitioners and the percentage of the total number of voters they constitute. The council then must read the ordinance and refer it to an appropriate council committee, which can be a committee of the whole. The committee or council must provide for public hearings on the ordinance. After holding hearings, the council must finally act upon the ordinance not later than 65 calendar days after the date the city clerk submitted it to the council. If the council fails to pass the proposed ordinance, or passes it in a form different from that in the petition and is unsatisfactory to the petitioners, the council must submit the proposed ordinance to a vote of the voters registered in Bloomington at the next regular municipal election; but if the number of signers of the petition is equal to at least 15 percent of the total number of voters voting at the last regular election, the council must call a special election upon the proposed ordinance. The special election must be held at the next uniform election date established in Minnesota Statutes that is at least 75 calendar days from the date of final council action or, if there has been no action, at least 75 calendar days after the expiration of the 65 calendar days from the date of submission to the council. If the council passes the proposed ordinance with amendments and at least 4/5 of the committee of petitioners do not express their objection with the amended form by a signed and notarized statement filed with the city clerk within ten calendar days of its passage, then the ordinance need not be submitted to the voters registered in Bloomington.
(Section 5.07 amended September 13, 1988 by Special Election; Ord. 2004-8, passed 4-5-2004; Ord. 2021-41, passed 11-29-2021)