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 (6) months of his or her term in office, a petition demanding his or her removal may be filed with the Clerk of Council. Such petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be filed together as one instrument. Each part shall contain the name and office of the person whose removal is sought. Such petition shall be signed by at least twenty-five percent (25%) of the electors voting at the last preceding general election for such office. If an additional ten percent (10%) of the electors voting at the last preceding general election for such office sign the petition, the date of the recall election shall be fixed within ninety (90) days from the date of the filing of the recall petition. Within ten (10) days after the day on which such petition shall have been filed, the Clerk of Council shall determine it is sufficient by:
A. Writing on the petition the name and address of the person filing the petition and the date of filing.
B. Providing the person filing the petition a date and time stamped receipt showing the number of pages and the number of signatures.
C. Determining the name and office of the person whose removal is sought.
D. Determining whether there is sufficient number of signatures accompanying the petition.
E. Determining within ten (10) days whether the requirements listed in A through D in this Section 20.02 have been met. If the Clerk determines that the petition is sufficient, the Clerk shall promptly certify to the person filing the petition and deliver a copy of such certificate to the officer whose removal is sought and make a record of such delivery. If the Clerk determines that the petition is insufficient, the Clerk shall promptly certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of this certificate to the person who filed the petition, 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 to make the petition sufficient.
If the Clerk shall find the petition sufficient, he or she 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 five (5) days after the day on which such delivery shall have been made, Council shall thereupon fix a day for holding a recall election not less than sixty (60) days nor more than seventy-five (75) days after the date of such delivery. Such date shall be set by Council by emergency legislation at the next regular Council meeting following the date on which the officer whose removal is sought has been served notice of the sufficiency of the petitions and has not resigned.
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 provision on the ballot for voting affirmatively or negatively. In the event a majority of the vote is negative, such officer shall be considered immediately removed from office. The removed officer shall have no legislative voting rights during the certification of the votes by the County Board of Elections. Upon certification of the vote his or her office shall be deemed vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled as provided by this Charter. The officer removed by such recall election shall not be eligible for appointment to the vacancy created thereby, and shall not run for election to such office from which removed for a period of two (2) years.
(Amended 11-5-02.)