Any initiative or referendum petition, or one for a recall, may be presented in separate parts. Each part of any initiative petition shall contain a full and correct copy of the title and text of the proposed ordinance or other measure, and each part of any referendum petition shall contain the number and the full and correct copy of the title of the ordinance or other measure sought to be referred, but need not contain the full text of such ordinance or other measure.
Each signer of a petition shall be a registered voter of the City and shall sign his name in ink and shall place on the petition his name and place of residence by street and number. Each part of any such petition shall contain the affidavit of the person soliciting the signatures to the same, which affidavit shall contain a statement of the number of signers of such part of such petition and shall state that to the best of the affiant's knowledge and belief each of the signatures contained on such part is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be, and that he believes such persons are registered electors of the City, and that they signed such petition with the knowledge of the contents thereof. Each part of such petition shall also have printed thereon the names and addresses of at least five registered electors, who shall be officially regarded as filing the petition and shall constitute a committee of the petitioners for the purpose herein elsewhere named.
All such petitions shall be filed with the Clerk of the Council and all parts of any such petition shall be assembled by the Clerk as one instrument.
Within ten days after the filing of a petition the Clerk shall ascertain whether the same is signed by the required number of qualified electors. Upon the completion of his examination the Clerk shall endorse upon the petition a certificate of the result thereof.
If the Clerk's certificate shows that the petition is insufficient he shall at once notify each member of the committee of the petitioners herein elsewhere provided for, and the petition may be amended at any time within fifteen days from the date of the Clerk's certificate of examination by filing with the Clerk an additional petition in one or more parts in the same manner as provided for the original petition. In the event that it shall be determined by judicial proceedings that the certificate of the Clerk to the effect that the petition is sufficient is erroneous, a similar period of time shall be granted for additional petitions after the final determination of such question.
Upon the filing of any such additional petitions, the Clerk shall within ten days thereafter examine the petition as thus amended and attach thereto his certificate of the result, and the petition shall thereafter be treated in the same manner as it would have been treated after the original certification. The final determination of the insufficiency of a petition shall not prevent the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.
The sufficiency of the number of signers to any initiative, referendum or recall petition, shall be determined on the basis of the number of registered voters at the last general election for municipal officers.
The filing of an initiative, referendum or recall petition by the Clerk with the Council within the times herein elsewhere provided shall be computed from the date of the attaching of the final certificate of the Clerk to such petition.
Whenever it becomes the duty of the Council to call an election by reason of the filing of an initiative or referendum petition or one for recall, the Council shall call an election for the submission of such question, or recall, at the next regular primary or general election occurring not less than sixty (60) days nor more than one hundred twenty (120) days thereafter. If no such regular primary or general election is to be held within such time, the Council shall provide for calling a special election not less than sixty (60) days nor more than one hundred twenty (120) days thereafter. In either event, the Council shall certify its action to the Director of Elections. Provided, however, that if the recall of more than three (3) members of the Council is sought by petition, the period of sixty (60) days hereinbefore provided shall be changed to one hundred twenty (120) days.
When any legislative measure resulting from any initiative or referendum petition is approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such legislative measure shall become effective at the time fixed therein and if no time is fixed therein, then such legislative measure shall become effective upon its approval by the electors; provided, however, that in the event that two or more inconsistent legislative measures on the same subject are submitted at the same election, only the one receiving the largest affirmative vote, not less than a majority, shall become effective. This section shall become effective January 1, 2017.
(Amended 11-8-16.)