The electors shall have the power to remove from office by a recall election any elected officer of the Municipality. If an elected officer shall have served six months of his or her term, a petition demanding his or her 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.
Such petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one instrument. Each part shall contain the name and office of the person whose removal is sought and statement in not more than two hundred (200) words of the grounds for the removal. Such petition shall be signed by at least that number of electors which equals 20 percent of the electors voting at the last regular municipal election. Within ten (10) 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 petit ion insufficient, he or she shall promptly certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of his or her certificate to the person who filed the petition with him or her, and make a record of such delivery. Such person shall be allowed a period of twenty (20) days after the day on which such delivery was made in which to make the petition sufficient. If the Clerk shall find the petition sufficient, he or she shall promptly so certify same to Council, and to the officer whose removal is sought, and shall make a record of such certification and the time thereof.
If such certification shall have been made, the Council shall thereupon order and fix a day for holding a recall election, not less than sixty (60), nor more than seventy-five (75) days after the date of the Clerk's certification of sufficiency to be held at the same time as any other general or special election held within such period: but if no such election be held within such period, at a special recall election to be held within the period aforesaid. Such recall elections shall be certified to the Board of Elections and held in accordance with the general laws of Ohio. At such recall election, the following question shall be placed on the ballot: "Shall (name of officer) be allowed to continue as (name of office)?", with provision on the ballot for voting affirmatively or negatively on such question. If a majority of the ballots cast at such election shall be voted affirmatively, such officer shall remain in office. If a majority of the ballots cast shall be voted negatively, such officer shall be considered removed, and his or her office shall be deemed vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled as provided in this Charter. The officer removed by such recall election shall not be eligible for appointment to the vacancy created thereby.
(Amended November 4, 2014)