CHAPTER XXI: REFERENDUM

Section

   1   [Submission of ordinance to voters prior to taking effect or within thirty days of passage; section not applicable to routine or emergency measures, general appropriation ordinance or bond ordinances]

   2   [Referendum petition]

   3   [Alteration or amendment or proposed ordinance]

   4   Ordinances passed by referendum subject to amendment or repeal by council after six months

   5   [Referendum relative to purchases and sales of public property by city]

§ 1 [SUBMISSION OF ORDINANCE TO VOTERS PRIOR TO TAKING EFFECT OR WITHIN THIRTY DAYS OF PASSAGE; SECTION NOT APPLICABLE TO ROUTINE OR EMERGENCY MEASURES, GENERAL APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE OR BOND ORDINANCES.]

   If prior to the date when an ordinance of a general nature passed by the council shall take effect, or within thirty (30) days after the passage of same, a referendum vote should be demanded on same, as hereafter provided, such ordinance shall be submitted to the legal voters of the City of Fort Worth, and the same shall not be effective and valid until the said ordinance shall have been approved by a majority of those voting thereon; provided, that this section shall not apply to mere matters of routine, or emergency measures passed on the ground of urgent public need for the preservation of peace, health, safety or property, by a vote of not less than three-fourths of the City Council, nor to the general appropriation ordinance or bond ordinances.

§ 2 [REFERENDUM PETITION.]

   Whenever there shall be presented to the City Council a petition or petitions, signed by twenty (20) per cent of the registered and qualified legal voters of said city, demanding that an ordinance passed by the council, and set forth in said petition or petitions, be submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of the city, it shall be the duty of the council to submit such proposed ordinance to a vote of the qualified electors of said city at the next election held thereafter by said city. The signatures to said petition need not all be appended to one paper, but each signer shall add to his signature his place of residence, giving the street and number. All signatures must be made in ink or with indelible pencil. One of the signers of said petition shall make oath before a duly qualified officer that the statements therein are true and that each signature to said petition is a genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be and was signed in his presence by such person; provided, that any petition intended to require a submission to referendum of an ordinance enacted by the City Council shall be presented to the council within thirty (30) days after the enactment of such ordinance, and not thereafter. The City Council may, if in its judgment the public interest so demands, provide for such referendum election to be held at an earlier date than that of the next ensuing election, in which event the said date shall be fixed by the council.

§ 3 [ALTERATION OR AMENDMENT OR PROPOSED ORDINANCE.]

   If the City Council shall alter or amend said proposed ordinance (as it may do), and such amended ordinance should not be satisfactory to the persons demanding the referendum, then the said amended ordinance shall be, if demanded in writing by a committee of five (5) signers, to be designated in the petitions as the committee to act for the said petitioners, submitted to a vote of the people at the next election ensuing in the city, unless a different date be set by the council. Or if said ordinance should not be amended or altered by the City Council, the same course shall be taken in respect thereto as in the case of amended ordinances.

   The ballots used in such election shall contain the words,-“For the Ordinance Passed by the City Council on a certain date” (stating the nature of the ordinance), and “Against the said Ordinance.” If a majority of the votes cast shall be in favor of the adoption of said ordinance, the said ordinance as passed shall be valid and effective, as other ordinances of the city, upon proper publication if required. If a majority of the votes cast as [at] such election be against the said ordinance it shall not be valid and effective.

§ 4 ORDINANCES PASSED BY REFERENDUM SUBJECT TO AMENDMENT OR REPEAL BY COUNCIL AFTER SIX MONTHS.

   Referendum ordinances adopted by the electors shall be published and may be amended or repealed by the council as in the case of other ordinances, but not until six (6) months after such ordinance shall become effective.