The electors shall have the power to remove from office by a recall election any elected officer of the Municipality who has served at least six (6) months of the term to which he was elected or appointed, by filing a petition demanding his removal with the Clerk of Council, who shall note thereon the name and address of the person filing the petition and the date the petition is filed. The Clerk of Council shall issue a receipt to the person filing the petition and shall attach a copy of such receipt to the petition. The petition may be circulated in separate parts, but such separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one (1) instrument. Each part shall contain the name of and office held by the person whose removal is sought and a statement, in not more than two hundred (200) words, of the alleged grounds or reasons for the removal. Such petition shall be signed by at least that number of electors which equals twenty-five (25) percent of the total votes cast for the office of Mayor at the last preceding Municipal election at which a Mayor was elected.
Within ten (10) days after the day such petition is filed, the Clerk of Council shall determine whether or not the petition meets the requirements hereof. If the Clerk of Council shall find the petition insufficient, he shall promptly certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, and deliver a copy of such certificate to the person who filed the petition and make a record of such delivery. Such person shall be allowed a period of twenty (20) days after the day of such delivery in which to make the petition sufficient by amendment. If the Clerk of Council shall find the petition or the amended petition sufficient, he shall promptly certify such finding to the Council, shall deliver a copy of such certificate to the person whose removal is sought, and shall make a record of such delivery.
If such person sought to be removed shall not resign within five (5) days after such delivery to him, the Council shall thereafter fix a day for holding a recall election, not less than sixty (60) days or more than seventy-five (75) days after the date of such delivery.
Such recall election may be at a regular Municipal election, a Municipal primary election, or a special election and such special election may be on the same day fixed by law for a general election or primary election, or on any other day as established by the Council. The Clerk of Council shall certify to the appropriate Board of Elections that an election is to be held on the question of the removal of the accused official on the date fixed by Council as hereinbefore provided, and the Clerk of Council shall cause notice of such election to be published on the same day of each week for two (2) consecutive weeks in a newspaper determined by said Clerk to be of circulation in the Municipality if such election is to be held on a day which is not the day of a regular Municipal or primary election or of a general or primary election.
At such election this question shall be placed on the ballot: “Shall (naming the person whose removal is sought) be allowed to continue as (name the office held by such person)?”, with provision being made on the ballot for voting “yes” or “no” on such question. If a majority of the votes cast shall be voted negatively, such officer shall be considered as removed, his office shall be vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled in the manner provided in this Charter. The person removed by such recall election shall not be eligible for appointment to fill the vacancy created thereby; however, said removal shall not bar such person from becoming a candidate for office of the Municipality at any subsequent election. If the person named in such petition is not removed at such recall election, then additional recall petitions shall not be filed seeking his removal for a period of one (1) year following such election. The removal of any officer under the provisions of this section shall not affect the validity of any ordinance, resolution or any other action in which such officer shall have participated.