a. To initiate recall proceedings, a written statement proposing the recall of the incumbent of an elective office shall be signed by one hundred (100) or more registered qualified electors of the city or ward concerned; and shall be filed with the city clerk after the incumbent has held the office at least four (4) months. The statement shall also contain the reason or reasons for which the recall is sought, in not more than two hundred (200) words. Within five (5) days, the city clerk shall mail a photostatic or other copy of such statement by registered, certified, or similar special mail to the officer at his residential address. Within ten (10) days after the statement is mailed to the officer, the officer may make and file with the city clerk a written statement in duplicate justifying his conduct in office, in not more than two hundred (200) words; and the city clerk on request shall deliver one (1) copy to one (1) of the persons filing the statement proposing the recall.
b. The petition for recall shall include a demand that a successor to the incumbent sought to be recalled be elected, and shall also include before the space where the signatures are to be written the statement giving the reason or reasons for recall under the heading "STATEMENT FOR RECALL", and if the officer has filed a statement as authorized, the statement justifying his conduct in office under the heading "STATEMENT AGAINST RECALL". The two (2) statements shall be in letters of the same size. A copy of the petition shall be filed with the city clerk within one (1) month after recall proceedings are initiated by the filing of the first statement, and before the petition is circulated.
c. A number of registered qualified electors of the city or ward concerned equal to at least twenty (20) percent of the total number of votes cast for governor in the city or ward at the last general state election at which a governor was elected must sign the petition. Each signer shall write after his name and his address within the city, giving street or avenue and number, if any. Not more than one hundred (100) signatures may appear on a single copy of the petition. Petitions may be circulated only by registered qualified electors of the city or ward concerned; and the person who circulates each copy of the petition shall sign an affidavit on the copy stating that each signer signed the petition in his presence, that each signature on the petition is genuine, and that he believes each signer to be a registered qualified elector of the city or ward concerned; and the person who circulates each copy of the petition shall sign an affidavit on the copy stating that each signer signed the petition in his presence, that each signature on the petition is genuine, and that he believes each signer to be a registered qualified elector of the city or ward concerned.
d. The circulated petition shall be filed with the city clerk not later than one (1) month after the filing of a copy as provided above. Within one (1) month after date of filing of the circulated petition, the city clerk shall examine it and ascertain whether it has been prepared and circulated as required, and whether the required number of registered qualified electors of the city or ward have signed it. He shall then attach his certificate to the petition. If his certificate states that the petition has not been prepared and circulated as required and/or lacks a sufficient number of signatures, the petition shall have no effect. But, if the city clerk's certificate states that the petition has been prepared and circulated as required and has a sufficient number of signatures, he shall submit the petition and certificate to the council at its next meeting. (Amendment adopted March 1986)