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Every ordinance or resolution granting any franchise or right to occupy or use the streets, highways, bridges, or public places in the city for any purpose shall be complete in the form in which it is finally passed, and remain on file with the Clerk for public inspection for at least one (1) week before the final passage or adoption thereof. The city shall not have power to grant any exclusive right or privilege under the government of the City.
(a) Copies of all ordinances enacted and amendments to the city charter adopted after the effective date of this charter shall be available at the office of the Clerk.
(b) Within two (2) years after the adoption of this charter and at least once in every ten (10) years the Commission shall direct and complete the compilation or codification and the publication of the charter and of all ordinances of the city then in force, in loose-leaf or pamphlet form, and may provide for a reasonable charge for copies thereof. No further publication of any such compilation or codification shall be required for the validity thereof. In case the compilation or codification of the ordinances of the city shall have been maintained current and up-to-date during any ten (10) year period, no re-compilation or re-codification of the ordinances of the city shall be required during or at the end of such period.
The copies of ordinances and of any compilation, code, or codes referred to in this charter may be certified by the Clerk, and, when so certified, shall be competent evidence in all courts and legally established tribunals as to the matters contained therein.
An initiatory or a referendary petition shall be signed by not less than fifteen (15) per cent of the registered electors of the city who have signed said petition within six (6) months before the date of filing the petition with the Clerk. Before being circulated for signatures, all such petitions may be approved as to form by the Clerk. No such petition need be on one paper, but may be the aggregate of two (2) or more petition papers. Each signer of a petition shall sign his name in ink or indelible pencil, and shall place thereon, after his name, the date and his place of residence by street and number, or by other customary designation. To each petition paper there shall be attached a sworn affidavit by the circulator thereof, stating the number of signers thereto and that each signature of the person whose name it purports to be, and that it was made in the presence of the affiant. Such petition shall be filed with the Clerk who shall, within ten (10) days, canvass the signatures thereon to determine the sufficiency thereof. If found to contain an insufficient number of signatures of registered electors of the city or to be improper as to form or compliance with the provisions of this section, the Clerk shall notify forthwith the person filing such petition, and ten (10) days from such notification shall be allowed for the filing of supplemental petition papers. When found sufficient and proper, the Clerk shall present the petition to the Commission at its next regular meeting.
Upon receiving an initiatory or referendary petition from the Clerk, the Commission shall within thirty (30) days, either;
(a) If it be an initiatory petition, adopt the ordinance as submitted in the petition or determine to submit the proposal to the electors of the city; or
(b) If it be a referendary petition, repeal the ordinance to which the petition refers or determine to submit the proposal to the electors of the city;
Should the Commission decide to submit the proposal to the electors, it shall be submitted at the next election held in the city for any other purpose, or, in the discretion of the Commission, at a special election. The result shall be determined by a majority vote of the electors voting thereon, except in cases where otherwise required by the constitution or laws of the State of Michigan.
The certification by the Clerk of the sufficiency of a referendary petition within thirty (30) days after passage of the ordinance to which such petition refers shall automatically suspend the operation of the ordinance in question pending repeal by the Commission or final determination by the electors as the case may be. An ordinance adopted by the electorate through initiatory proceedings may not be amended or repealed by the Commission for a period of two (2) years after the date of the election at which it was adopted. Should two (2) or more ordinances adopted at the same election, have conflicting provisions, the one receiving the highest vote shall prevail as to those provisions.