The electors of this Municipality shall have the power to propose any ordinance or resolution to the Council and, if Council fails to adopt such ordinance, to adopt or reject the same at the polls. This power shall be known as the Initiative.
An initiative ordinance or resolution shall be submitted to Council by a petition signed by electors of the Municipality equal in number to at least ten (10) percent of the total number of electors casting a Presidential vote in the last Presidential election. When a petition is so submitted, the Clerk of Council shall, within twenty (20) days, determine its sufficiency. The Clerk shall retain possession of the petition until final determination of sufficiency is made.
If the Clerk finds the petition insufficient, he shall promptly certify the particulars in which the petition is defective and deliver a copy of his certificate to the person who filed the petition with him. Such person shall then be allowed fifteen (15) days from the delivery of such copy of certificate in which to make the petition sufficient by means of a document correcting the particulars certified defective (such document to be hereinafter known as an "amended petition").
If an amended petition is filed, the Clerk shall within ten (10) days determine its sufficiency. If the amended petition be found insufficient, it shall be retained by the Clerk and declared null and void. If an amended petition is not filed, the original petition shall be retained by the Clerk and declared null and void. A final determination of insufficiency, even if sustained upon court review, shall not prejudice the filing of a new petition.
If the petition or amended petition be found sufficient, Council shall take final action, whether enacting, amending, or rejecting the proposed ordinance or resolution within forty (40) days after certification of sufficiency. If Council fails to pass such proposed ordinance or resolution, or passes it in some form different from that set forth in the petition therefor, the petitioners, through a majority of the committee (as defined in Section 7.05 of this Charter) named on such petition, may at the next regular meeting of Council request in writing that it be submitted to a vote of the electors. Thereupon, Council shall within forty-eight (48) hours provide for the submission of the petitioned ordinance or resolution to the electors at an election occurring more than seventy-five (75) days after the request by the committee for submission of the measure to the electors; but if such petition is signed by electors equal in number to at least twenty (20) percent of the total number of electors casting a Presidential vote in the last Presidential election, the day of the election may be fixed therein, but in no case shall it be held fewer than seventy-six (76) days after request by the committee.
Any initiative ordinance passed by a vote of the electors shall not be subject to repeal by Council within one (1) year of its passage, except that such an ordinance may be repealed at any time by unanimous vote of all members elected to Council.
(Amended 11-8-94)