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In all judicial proceedings, it shall be sufficient to plead any ordinance by caption, or by the number of sections thereof wanted, and it shall not be necessary to plead the entire ordinance or section. All ordinances of the city when printed and published and bearing on the title page thereof “Ordained and Published by the City Council of the City of Dallas,” or words of like import, shall be prima facie evidence of their authenticity and shall be admitted and received in all the courts and places without further proof.
Any proposed ordinance may be submitted to the city council in the form in which the petitioner desires the ordinance to be passed, by a petition filed with the city secretary in the following manner:
(1) A committee of at least five residents of the City of Dallas must make application to the city secretary and file an intention to circulate a petition, giving the date and the proposed ordinance to be circulated. Unless the final petition, with the required number of signatures is returned within 120 days from this date, it will not be received for any purpose.
(2) The petition must contain the names of a number of qualified voters in the city equal to five percent of the qualified voters of the City of Dallas as appears from the latest available county voter registration list.
(3) The petition must comply in form, content, and procedure with the provisions of Section 12, Chapter IV of this Charter. (Amend. of 4-2-83, Prop. No. 2; Amend. of 5-1-93, Prop. No. 6; Amend. of 11-5-24)
Within 30 days after the date the petition is filed, the city secretary shall examine and ascertain whether or not the petition is signed by the requisite number of qualified voters and shall attach to the petition a certificate showing the result of the examination. If the petition is found to be sufficient, the city secretary shall submit the petition to the city council without delay. (Amend. of 4-2-83, Prop. No. 2; Amend. of 5-1-93, Prop. No. 6)
If the petition, properly signed, is presented to the city council, the council shall either:
(1) pass the ordinance without alteration within 20 days after the attachment of the city secretary’s certificate of sufficiency to the accompanying petition (subject to referendary vote under provisions of this Charter); or
(2) after the attachment of the city secretary’s certificate of sufficiency to the petition accompanying the ordinance, promptly call a special election, at which the ordinance, without alteration, shall be submitted to a vote of the people. (Amend. of 11-8-05, Prop. No. 13)
The ballots used when voting upon said ordinance shall be in a manner so as to apprise the voters of the nature of the proposed ordinance and contain two propositions so that they may vote either “for” or “against” the propositions indicating their preference on the ordinance. If a majority of the qualified electors voting on said proposed ordinance shall vote in favor thereof, such ordinance shall thereupon become a valid and binding ordinance of the city, and any ordinance proposed by petition, or which shall be adopted by a vote of the people, cannot be repealed or amended except by a vote of the people.
Any number of proposed ordinances may be voted upon at the same election, in accordance with the provisions of this section of the Charter, but more than one special election shall not be held in any period of six months.
The city council may submit a proposition for the repeal of any such ordinance or for amendments thereto, to be voted upon at any succeeding general city election, and should such proposition so submitted receive a majority of the votes cast thereon at such election, such ordinance shall be repealed or amended accordingly.
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