(A) The electors shall have the power to remove from office by a recall election any elected official of the City in the manner herein provided.
(B) If the elected official shall have served six months of the term for which the official was elected, a petition demanding his 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, and deliver to such person a receipt therefor and attach a copy thereof to said petition. 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 a statement of the grounds for the removal. Such petition shall be signed by at least that number of electors which equal thirty percent in number of the electors voting at the last preceding mayoral election provided that if the petition is filed demanding the removal of a ward council member, such petition shall be signed by at least that number of electors in such ward which equals thirty percent in number of the electors voting in such ward at the last preceding mayoral election.
(C) Within twenty days after the day on which such petition shall have been filed, the Clerk of Council shall determine whether or not it meets the requirements hereof. If the Clerk of Council shall find the petition insufficient, the Clerk of Council shall promptly prepare a certificate setting forth the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of that certificate to the person who filed the petition and make a record of such delivery. Such person shall be allowed a period of ten days after the day on which such delivery was made in which to make the petition sufficient. If the Clerk of Council shall find the petition sufficient, the Clerk of Council shall promptly so certify to Council, shall deliver a copy of such certificate to the person whose removal is sought, and shall make a record of such delivery.
(D) If the person whose removal is sought shall not resign within five 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 days nor more than ninety days, after the date of such delivery, and shall cause notice of such recall election to be published by posting on the City's website for at least fourteen days prior to the election and by publishing it once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the City, if there is such a newspaper, and otherwise in a newspaper determined by Council to be of circulation in the City. At such recall election, this question shall be placed upon the ballot: "Shall (naming the person whose removal is sought) be allowed to continue as (naming the position)?", with the provision on the ballot for voting affirmatively or negatively, and in the event a majority of the vote is negative, such person shall be considered as removed, the office held by the person shall be deemed vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled as provided in this Charter. The person removed at such recall election shall not be eligible for appointment to the vacancy created thereby. If the person is not removed at such recall election, no further recall petitions shall be filed against that person for a period of one year following such election. In the event that a recall election is ordered, as provided by this Section, for a ward Council member, only the duly qualified electors of the ward which said Council member represents shall be entitled to vote upon the issue of recall.
(Amended 11-5-91; 11-2-21)
(E) A removal by recall election shall not bar the person so removed from becoming a candidate for office in future elections.