(a) To initiate recall proceedings, a written statement proposing the recall of the mayor or other council member shall be signed by twenty (20) or more qualified electors of the city or ward concerned, as the case may be, 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 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 delivery one (1) copy to one 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 ward for Councilmember, or City at large for Mayor, equal to at least thirty (30) percent of the qualified electors of the ward for Councilmember, or City at large for Mayor, who voted at the last general statewide election must sign the petition. Each signer shall write after the signer's name, 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 area; 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, and that each signature on the petition is genuine, and that he believes each signer to be a registered qualified elector of the ward, or City at large, as the case may be.
(d) The circulated petition shall be filed with the City Clerk no later than one (1) month after the filing of a copy as provided. Within one (1) month after the date of filing of the circulated petition, the City Clerk shall examine it and ascertain whether the required number of registered electors of the ward, or City at large, as the case may be, have signed it. The City Clerk 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 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, the City Clerk shall submit the petition and certification to the City Council at its next meeting.