(a) An employee member of the Board may be removed from office, and the procedure to effect the removal of an incumbent from office shall be known as the recall. A recall will be prohibited if any of the following conditions exist for the employee member of the Board: 1) the member has held the current term of office for less than three months; 2) the current term of office expires within six months; or 3) there has been a previous recall election for the same person within six months.
(b) Proponents of the recall must be current employee members of the Department from which the incumbent was elected. To initiate a recall, proponents shall prepare a Notice of Intention (Notice) to do so. The City Clerk shall specify the required format and contents of the Notice. The Notice shall be accompanied by a typed Statement of Reasons (Statement) for the proposed recall, not exceeding 300 words in length. The sufficiency of such Statement shall not be subject to review. The Notice and Statement shall be submitted to the City Clerk and shall be posted at the City Clerk. On the same day that they are submitted to the City Clerk, this Notice and Statement shall be served upon or sent by certified mail to the employee member of the Board who is the subject of the proposed recall. The recall proponents shall submit to the City Clerk proof of service within five business days of serving the employee member of the Board.
(c) Within 14 calendar days after the posting of the Notice and Statement, the employee member sought to be recalled, or anyone upon their behalf, may prepare a typed Answer to the Statement (Answer). This Answer shall not exceed 300 words in length and shall be posted with the Notice and Statement at the City Clerk. The Answer is intended solely for the information of the voters and no insufficiency in the form or substance thereof shall affect in any manner the validity of the proceedings required under this section.
(d) In addition to the Notice and Statement, a recall petition must be signed by 20% of the employee members of the department from which the incumbent was elected. Such petition shall be addressed to the Board and filed with the City Clerk. It shall request that the question of whether the incumbent shall be removed from office by a vote of such members be submitted to the members of the corresponding department. The petition shall also state that, in the event the incumbent is removed by majority vote, a concurrent election of a successor shall be held.
(e) Twenty-one (21) calendar days after the posting of the Notice and Statement in the City Clerk, the petition demanding the recall of the employee member of the Board may be circulated among the eligible voters for the securing of signatures. The petition shall bear a copy of the posted Notice, accompanying Statement, and the Answer, if one has been submitted. If no Answer has been submitted, the petition shall so state. Recall proponents shall obtain the necessary number of signatures and file the petition with the City Clerk within six weeks from the date the Notice was posted at the City Clerk.
(f) The City Clerk shall specify the form and mode of signing, filing, examining, certifying, and presenting the petition to the Board. The proponents of the recall shall be fully responsible for ensuring petitions are complete in every detail and in proper form when filed with the City Clerk. The City Clerk shall verify and certify the sufficiency of the signatures on the petition.
(g) If the City Clerk determines the petition to be sufficient, the City Clerk shall, without undue delay, prepare a Certification of Sufficiency (Certification) indicating the basis for the City Clerk's determination and the date it was made. The City Clerk shall present this Certification to the Board and the recall proponents. Upon receipt of the Certification, the Board shall order the holding of a special election. The election will ask whether such employee member shall be recalled, and if recalled, will also call for the concurrent election of their successor. Unless otherwise specified herein, a special election conducted pursuant to this section shall conform to the provisions contained in Section 23.102.10.
(h) The recall election shall be held not more than 90 nor fewer than 60 calendar days after the City Clerk has presented the Certification to the Board.
(i) Any employee member seeking to be a successor candidate placed on the recall election ballot, other than the incumbent sought to be removed, may be nominated by completing a Notice of Intent. The Notice of Intent shall conform to the provisions of Section 23.102.3.
(j) The recall election ballot shall provide for votes on the recall and a successor candidate and shall include both the Statement prepared by the recall proponents and the Answer prepared by or on behalf of the employee member sought to be recalled.
(k) The recall vote shall ask, "Shall (inserting the name of the employee member sought to be removed) be removed from the office of elected employee member on the Board of Fire and Police Pension Commissioners?" The question should be followed by checkboxes labeled "Yes" and "No".
(l) Beneath the recall vote shall appear the names of all qualified candidates who have been nominated to complete the unexpired term of office if a majority of eligible voters vote to recall the incumbent.
(m) If a majority of eligible voters vote "No", said incumbent shall continue in office. If a majority of eligible voters vote "Yes", said incumbent shall thereupon be deemed recalled. In the event the incumbent is recalled, then the successor candidate who has received a plurality of all votes cast for the office shall be thereby declared elected for the remainder of the unexpired term.
(n) A recalled incumbent shall continue to perform the duties of office until such time as the Board shall declare the result of the recall election. Following the Board's declaration, the incumbent shall be removed from office and the successor candidate shall be installed in the incumbent's place.
SECTION HISTORY
Added by Ord. No. 184,664, Eff. 1-25-17.