Any member of Council may be removed from office before the expiration of his term, by recall election, by the qualified electors of the City. A petition demanding the removal of an elected Council member shall be filed with the Clerk of Council who shall note thereon the name and address of the elector filing the petition and the date of such filing. Petitions 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 of the Council member whose removal is sought and shall include a statement in not more than two hundred (200) words of the grounds for removal. Such petition shall be signed by the number of qualified electors which equals twenty-five per cent (25%) of the total number of electors voting at the last regular Municipal election. Within ten (10) days after the date on which such petition is filed, the Clerk of Council shall transmit the petition to the Preble County Board of Elections. That Board shall examine the validity of the signatures and return the petition to the Clerk of Council within ten (10) days of receipt with a statement attesting to the number of qualified voters who signed the petition. The Clerk of Council shall then determine whether or not the petition meets the requirements of this section.
If the Clerk of Council finds the petition insufficient, the Clerk shall certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of the certificate to the person who filed the petition, and make a record of such delivery. The person so notified shall be allowed a period of twenty (20) days, after the date of notification in which to make the petition sufficient by amendment. If the Clerk of Council shall find the petition, or an amended petition, sufficient, the Clerk shall promptly so certify to the Council and shall deliver a copy of such certificate to the Council member whose removal is sought recording date and time of such delivery. If the Council member sought to be recalled shall not resign within five (5) days after the delivery of such certification, the Council shall fix a day for holding a recall election, not less than sixty (60) days nor more than seventy-five (75) days after the date of delivery of the notice to the Council member sought to be recalled.
At such recall election, conducted by the Board of Elections of Preble County, Ohio, this question shall be placed on the ballot: "Shall (naming the Council member) be allowed to continue as Council member of the City of Eaton?" with provisions on the ballot for voting affirmatively or negatively on such question. If a majority of the votes cast at such election shall be voted affirmatively, such Council member shall remain in office. If a majority of the votes cast at such election shall be voted negatively after certification by said Board of Elections of the election’s results, such Council member shall be considered as removed, his office shall be deemed vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled as provided in this Charter. The Council member removed by such recall election shall not be eligible for appointment to the vacancy thus created.
(Amended 11-7-00.)