(A) Except as provided in Section 9.01 of this Charter, the electors of the City shall have the power to propose any ordinance or resolution for adoption or rejection by a vote of the people as provided in this Section. This power shall be known as the initiative. An initiated ordinance or resolution shall be submitted to the Council by a petition signed by electors of the City not less in number than ten percent of the electors voting at the last mayoral election. The petition shall designate not less than three of the signers of the petition as a committee authorized to take action as provided in Division (B) and (C) of this Section. The petition shall be in a form approved by the Director of Law. The petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one instrument. Each petition and separate part thereof, shall have attached thereto while it is circulated and when it is filed a full text of the ordinance or resolution proposed for adoption or rejection.
(Amended 11-5-91)
(B) An initiative petition shall be filed with the Director of Finance, who shall determine whether the petition is sufficient within ten days after it is received by that Director. If the petition is found to be insufficient, the Director of Finance shall notify the Committee of the petitioners, and the Committee shall have ten days in which to file additional parts to the petition in order to make the petition sufficient. If the petition is sufficient in its original or amended form, the Director of Finance shall present the petition to the Council at its next regular meeting subsequent to the date the petition is found to be sufficient.
(Amended 11-2-21)
(C) When a sufficient petition initiating a proposed ordinance or resolution is presented to the Council by its Clerk, the Council shall take final action on the proposed ordinance or resolution by enacting it, in its original or in an amended form or by rejecting it within thirty days after it is presented to the Council by the Clerk of Council. Sections 4.02, 4.03, 4.04, 4.07, 4.08, and 5.04 of this Charter shall not apply to ordinances or resolutions considered under the initiative power. If the Council shall reject or fail to enact the proposed ordinance or resolution, or enact it in a form different from that attached to the petition, the Committee for the petitioners named in the petition may, not later than the next regular meeting of the Council, request in writing, signed by at least a majority of the members of the Committee that the proposed ordinance or resolution, in the form attached to the petition, be submitted to a vote of the electors of the City. At a meeting held not later than the next regular meeting of the Council following the meeting when the written request of the Committee was received, the Council shall cause the proposed ordinance or resolution, in the form attached to the petition, to be submitted to a vote of the electors at the next primary or general election to be held within the City that occurs at least seventy-five days after its action.
(D) An ordinance or resolution submitted to a vote of the electors under the power of initiative, if approved by a majority of the persons voting on the issue, shall be effective immediately unless a later date is specified in the ordinance or resolution. Ordinances and resolutions adopted by the electors under the power of initiative may be amended or repeated in the same manner as other ordinances and resolutions.
(Amended 11-8-77)