Article X
INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM, AND RECALL
Sec. 10.01 Initiative.
   (A)    Any proposed ordinance or resolution may be submitted to the Council by petition signed by electors equal in number to ten percent of the number of votes cast in the last preceding regular municipal election. All petitions or papers constituting a part of a petition circulated with respect to any proposed ordinance or resolution shall be uniform in character and shall contain the proposed ordinance or resolution in full and have printed thereon the names and addresses of at least five electors who shall be officially regarded as filing the petition and constitute a committee of the petitioners for the purposes hereinafter stated. All actions taken by the committee of the petitioners shall be in writing and signed by at least three members thereof.
   (B)    The circulator of any petition paper shall be an elector of the Municipality. Each signer of a petition shall sign his name in ink or indelible pencil and shall place on the petition paper after his name, his place of residency by street and number, or by other description sufficient to identify the place. The signatures to any such petition paper need not all be appended to one paper, but to each paper there shall be attached an affidavit by the circulator thereof stating the number of signers to such part of the petition, that the circulator is an elector of the Municipality, that the signatures on the petition paper were affixed in the presence of the circulator, and that the circulator believes each signature appended to the paper is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be.
   (C)    All papers comprising a petition shall be assembled and filed with the Clerk of Council as one instrument. Within ten days from the filing of a petition, the Clerk of Council shall ascertain whether it is signed by the required number of qualified electors in the manner and form prescribed and that it conforms to all requirements of this Charter. Upon the completion of his examination, the Clerk of Council shall endorse upon the petition a certificate of the results thereof.
   (D)    If the Clerk of Council's certificate shows that the petition is insufficient, he shall at once notify each member of the committee of the petitioners, hereinbefore provided for, and the petition may be amended by such committee at any time within ten days from the date of the Clerk of Council's certificate of examination, by filing with the Clerk of Council an additional petition paper or papers in the same manner as provided for the original petition.
   (E)    Upon the filing of such an amendment, the Clerk of Council shall, within ten days thereafter, examine the amended petition and attach thereto his certificate of the results. If still insufficient, or if no amendment shall have been filed, the Clerk of Council shall file the petition in his offices and shall notify each member of the committee of the insufficiency. The final finding of the insufficiency of a petition by the Clerk of Council shall not prejudice the right to file a new petition for the same purpose.
   (F)    If the certificate of the Clerk of Council shows the petition to be sufficient, he shall submit the proposed ordinance or resolution to the Council at its next regular meeting, and the Council shall at once read and refer the same to an appropriate committee, which may be a committee of the whole Council. Provision shall be made for public hearings upon the proposed ordinance or resolution before the committee to which it is referred. Thereafter the committee shall report the proposed ordinance or resolution to the Council with its recommendations thereon, not later than 60 days after the date on which the proposed ordinance or resolution was submitted to the Council by the Clerk of Council.
   (G)    Upon receiving the proposed ordinance or resolution from its committee, the Council shall at once proceed to consider it and shall take final action thereon within 30 days from the date such committee reports its recommendations on the proposed ordinance or resolution. If the Council rejects the proposed ordinance or resolution, or passes it in a form different from that set forth in the petition, the committee of the petitioners may require that it be submitted to a vote of the electors in its original form, or that it be submitted to a vote of the electors with any proposed amendment which was filed with the Clerk of Council and presented in writing by the petitioner's committee at a public hearing before the committee to which such proposed ordinance was referred, or during the consideration thereof by the Council. The committee of the petitioners shall certify the form of the proposed ordinance or resolution to be submitted to a vote of the electors to the Clerk of Council within ten days after final action on such proposed ordinance or resolution by the Council.
   (H)    The Clerk of Council shall determine if the form of the ordinance is in either its original form or in a form as filed with the Clerk under division (G) of this section as hereinbefore provided, and if such determination is negative, shall take no further action. If the determination if affirmative, the Clerk shall present such proposed ordinance or resolution to the Council at its next regular meeting. The Council shall provide for submitting the proposed ordinance or resolution to the electors on the next primary or general election to be held within the Municipality, provided that such election day shall occur at least 45 days after the receipt of the proposed ordinance or resolution from the Clerk of Council; however, Council may provide for submitting the proposed ordinance or resolution to the electors at a special election on a date fixed by the Council, upon a two-thirds vote of the members of the Council.
   (I)    Ordinances or resolutions initiated under this section may be new enactments or may amend or repeal existing ordinances or resolutions. Ordinances or resolutions adopted under this section need not be published and may be amended or repealed by a three-fourths vote of the members of the Council or by a vote of the electors.