Any or all members of the city commission may be removed from office by the electors by the following procedure:
A petition for the recall of the commissioner or commissioners designated, signed by at least five hundred (500) of the electors of the city, and containing a statement in not more than two hundred (200) words of the grounds of the recall, shall be filed with the clerk of the city commission, who shall forthwith notify the commissioner or commissioners sought to be removed, and he or they, within five (5) days after such notice, may file with such clerk of the city commission a defensive statement in not exceeding two hundred (200) words. The clerk of the city commission shall at once, upon expiration of said five (5) days, cause sufficient printed or typewritten copies of such petition, without the signatures, to be made, and to each of them he shall attach a printed or typewritten copy of such defensive statement, if one is furnished him within the time provided. The clerk of the city commission shall cause one copy of such petition to be placed on file in the said clerk's office, and provide facilities for the public signing the same, and shall also cause one copy to be placed in each of the several fire engine houses of the City, where the same shall be in the custody of the officer in charge of the house, who shall provide facilities for the public signing the same. The clerk of the city commission shall immediately cause notice to be published in some newspaper of general circulation in the city of the placing of such copies of such petition.
Such copies of such petition shall remain on file in the several places designated for the period of thirty (30) days, during which time any of them may be signed by any registered voter in the municipality, but not by agent or attorney.