Any member of Council or Mayor may be removed from office before the expiration of his term by the qualified voters of the City.
The recall of any member of Council or Mayor shall proceed upon determination that the elected officer:
A. Does not possess, or has ceased to possess, the qualifications of office; or
B. Has failed to take the required oath or to give any bond required of him within twenty days after his notification of his appointment of election, or obligation to give a new or additional bond; or
C. While in office has been convicted of a felony or crime involving moral turpitude; or
D. Is guilty of gross misconduct, gross neglect of duty, misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance in office; or
E. Has been adjudicated legally incompetent; or
F. Has violated his oath of office.
The electors shall have the power to remove from office by a recall election any elected officer of the City in the manner herein provided. If an elected officer shall have served one (1) year of his term, a petition demanding his removal may be filed with the Clerk of Council, who shall note thereon the name and address of the person filing the petition and the date of such filing, and deliver to such person a receipt therefor and attach a copy thereof to said petition. From the date such uncirculated petition is filed with the Clerk of Council, the petitioner shall have ninety (90) days in which to circulate the recall petition and refile the petition with the Clerk that satisfies the requirements for triggering a recall election. Such petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one (1) instrument. Each part shall contain the name and office of the person whose removal is sought and a statement in not more than two hundred (200) words of the grounds of the removal. Such petition shall be signed by at least that number of electors which equals fifty-one percent (51%) in number of the electors voting at the last preceding Presidential election, provided however, the petition for recall of a councilman elected from a ward shall be signed by at least that number of electors of the councilman’s ward equal to fifty-one percent (51%) in number of the electors of such ward who voted in the last preceding regular municipal election. Within twenty (20) days after the day on which such petition shall have been filed, the Clerk shall determine whether or not it meets the requirements hereof. If the Clerk shall find the petition insufficient, he shall promptly certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of his certificate to the person who filed the petition, and make a record of such delivery. Such person shall be allowed a period of ten (10) days after the date on which such delivery was made in which to make the petition sufficient.
If the Clerk of Council shall find the petition sufficient, he shall promptly so certify to Council, shall deliver a copy of such certificate to the officer whose removal is sought, and shall make a record of such delivery.
If such officer shall not resign within seven (7) days after the day on which such delivery shall have been made, the Council shall thereupon, at its next Regular Council Meeting after the expiration of that seven (7) day period, adopt and promptly certify to the Board of Elections a resolution requesting the County Board of Elections to schedule the recall election for the soonest Regular General or Regular Municipal, or Primary, election date for which the recall election can be scheduled by the County Board of Elections and shall cause notice of such recall election to be posted promptly on the Village website until the date of the recall election. An election for the recall of a councilman elected from a ward shall be conducted only in that ward; all other recall elections shall be conducted in the City at large. At such recall election, this question shall be placed upon the ballot: “Shall (naming the officer) be allowed to continue as (naming the office)?”, with the provisions on the ballot for voting affirmatively or negatively, and in the event of a majority of the vote is negative, such officer shall be considered as removed, his office shall be deemed vacant and such vacancy shall be filled as provided in this Charter. The officer removed at such recall election shall not be eligible for appointment to the vacancy created thereby. If the officer is not removed at such recall election, no further recall petitions shall be filed against him for a period of one (1) year following such election.
(Amended November 6, 2018; November 8, 2022.)