The electors shall have the power to remove from office by a recall election any elected officer of the City. If an elected officer shall have served for one year of his term, a petition demanding his removal may be filed with the Clerk of Council, who shall note thereon the name and address of the person filing the petition and the date of such filing. Such petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one instrument. Each part shall contain the name and office of the person whose removal is sought and a statement in not more than two hundred (200) words of the grounds for the removal. Such petition shall be signed by at least that number of electors which equals 20% of the electors in the ward voting at the last regular Municipal election for the Ward Councilman, and 20% of the electors citywide voting at the last regular Municipal election for Mayor and a Councilman-at- Large. Within ten (10) days after the day on which the petition shall be filed the Clerk shall determine whether or not it meets the requirements hereof. If the Clerk shall find the petition insufficient, he shall promptly certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of his certificate to the person who filed the petition with him, and make a record of such delivery. Such person shall be allowed a period of twenty (20) days after the day on which such delivery was made in which to make the petition sufficient. If the Clerk shall find the petition sufficient he shall promptly so certify to the Council, and to the officer whose removal is sought, and make a record of the certification and the time thereof. If such officer shall not resign within five (5) days after the day on which such delivery shall have been made, the Council shall thereupon order and fix a day for holding a recall election, not less than sixty (60), nor more than seventy-five (75) days after the date of the Clerk’s certification of sufficiency.
Such recall elections shall be certified to the Board of Elections and held in accordance with the general laws of Ohio. At such recall election, the following questions shall be placed on the ballot: “Shall (name of officer) be removed from the office of (name of office) by recall?” Immediately following each such question, there shall be printed on the ballot, the two propositions in the order set forth. “No, I am against the recall of (name of person)”. “Yes, I am in favor of the recall of (name of person)”. If a majority of the votes cast at such election shall be voted negatively, such officer shall remain in office. If a majority of the votes cast at such election shall be voted positively such officer shall be considered as removed and his office shall be deemed vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled as provided in this Charter. The officer removed by such recall election shall not be eligible to be elected or appointed to any office of the City for a period of one year after the date of such recall.
(Amended November 2, 2010)