(a) Any initiative, referendum or recall petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one instrument. Each part shall contain in the case of the initiative or referendum, a full and correct copy of the title and text of the proposed or referred ordinance or resolution, and in the case of the recall, the name and office of the person whose removal is sought and a statement in not more than 200 words of the grounds for the proposed removal. The manner of signing, the method of circulating, the form and requirements as to the affidavit, and the other requirements of the general laws of the State of Ohio regulating initiative and referendum petitions, shall apply in the case of initiative, referendum and recall in this Municipality, except as otherwise provided in this Charter.
(b) Within thirty (30) days after the final passage by Council and approval by the Mayor of an Ordinance or Resolution, that was not adopted as an emergency ordinance, a referendum petition signed by at least that number of electors which equals ten percent (10%) of the electors voting at the last preceding general municipal election, may be filed with the Clerk of Council, requesting that such ordinance or resolution be either repealed or submitted to a vote of electors. If the referendum petition is filed, the Clerk of Council shall first ascertain the sufficiency of the petition, and if found sufficient, the Council shall thereupon, within thirty (30) days of the filing of such petition, reconsider such ordinance or resolution. If, upon such reconsideration, the ordinance or resolution is not repealed, the Council shall submit it to a vote of the electors at the first primary or general election in any year occurring more than ninety (90) days after the Council determines that it will not repeal the ordinance or resolution. No such ordinance or resolution shall go into effect until approved by a majority of those voting thereon.
(c) Ordinances and resolutions providing for a tax levy or for improvements petitioned for by the owners of a majority of the front footage of the property benefited and to be specially assessed therefor, and appropriation ordinances and resolutions, limited to the subject of appropriations, shall not be subject to referendum. Further, whenever the Council is required to pass more than one ordinance, resolution or other action to complete the financing and assessment of the cost of any public improvement previously finally approved, only the first resolution, ordinance or other action relating to said financing and assessment shall be subject to referendum, and any subsequent resolution, ordinance or other action relating to the financing and assessment of the cost of said public improvement, as previously finally approved, shall not be subject to referendum.
(d) Any Ordinance adopted to certify an initiative to the Board of Elections to be considered by the electors shall not be subject to referendum.
(e) Ordinances and other measures may be proposed by initiative petition and adopted by election, in the manner now or hereinafter provided by the Constitution or the laws of Ohio, except that ordinances proposed by initiative petition to amend the Planning and Zoning Code and/or the Zoning Map of the Municipality shall be subject to the procedures, process, review certification of the Board of Elections and other requirements contained in Section X of this Charter, and only in the event that this Charter is silent on a matter, or there is no conflict with this Charter, in accordance with the laws of Ohio. It is hereby declared that in the event of a conflict between the Charter and the Ohio Revised Code, and as permitted by the home rule powers granted to municipalities, and the Ohio Revised Code and in particular Ohio Revised Code Section 731.41, the manner, means, method, consideration and placement on the ballot of initiatives shall be governed by this Charter.
(f) This section shall be severable and if any subsection, paragraph, part, word or application thereof is held invalid for any reason, such holding shall not invalidate or affect the force and effect of any other subsection, paragraph, part, word or application thereof.
(g) After the petitioners have submitted their initiative petitions to the Clerk of Council, and upon completion of circulation within the Municipality, the Clerk of Council shall submit such petitions to the Board of Elections to determine if there are sufficient valid signatures of electors of the Municipality. The Board of Elections shall certify whether such petitions contain the signatures of not less than ten (10%) of the number of electors who voted at the last preceding general municipal election in the Municipality. In the event such initiative petitions do not contain sufficient signatures to meet or exceed ten percent (10%) of the number of electors that voted in the last preceding general municipal election, the petitioners may seek additional signatures of electors of the Municipality.
(h) Once the initiative petitions are certified by the Board of Elections to have not less than ten percent (10%) of the number of electors voting at the last preceding general municipal election, the initiative shall be placed on the agenda for the next regular Council meeting. At the first regular Council meeting at which the initiative is considered, a public hearing before Council shall be set with at least ten (10) days advance notice. The notice shall conform to the requirements for notification of public hearings whenever any amendment to the Planning and Zoning Code and/or Zoning Map of the Municipality is being proposed as provided in the Planning and Zoning Code of the Municipality. Public hearings shall be held at a regular Council meeting. (Amended 11-2-21)