The electors shall have the power to remove from office, by a recall election, any elected officer of the Municipality who has served for not less than six (6) months of the officer's term.
If an elector intends to file a petition demanding the officer's removal, the petition must be compliant with Section 705.92 of the Ohio Revised Code. The elector must sign an Affidavit before the Clerk of Council, and the Affidavit must then be filed with the Clerk of Council. The Affidavit shall identify the elected officer the elector desires to have removed along with the name and address of the elector. The elector shall have sixty (60) days from the filing of the Affidavit to obtain signatures for the petition. Once signatures are obtained, the elector shall have an additional five (5) working days in which to file the petition with the Clerk of Council. The Clerk shall only file the petition if it is being filed within the time period allowed after the filing of the Affidavit. The right to file the petition is forfeited if the elector attempts to file it after the five (5) day time period allowed for filing. The Clerk shall note thereon the name and address of the person filing the petition and the date of such filing. Such petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one instrument. Within ten (10) days after the day on which such petition is filed, the Clerk of Council shall determine whether or not it meets the requirements herein.
Each part shall contain the name and office of the officer whose removal is sought and a statement in not more than two hundred (200) words of the grounds for such removal. Such petition shall be signed by the number of electors which equals twenty-five percent (25%) of the total number of electors voting for the candidates at-large at the preceding election in the case of the proposed removal of a Council Member at-l or the Mayor; or twenty-five percent (25%) of the number of electors, voting for the candidates for a particular district, at the preceding election, in the case of the proposed removal of a Council Member from a district.
If the Clerk shall find the petition insufficient, the Clerk shall immediately certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of the certificate to the person who filed the petition with the Clerk, and make a record of such delivery. If the Clerk shall find the petition sufficient, the Clerk shall promptly so certify to Council, shall deliver a copy of such certificate to the officer whose recall is sought, and shall make a record of such delivery. If such officer shall not resign in five (5) business days after the day on which such delivery shall have been made, the Council shall thereupon fix a day for holding a recall election, not less than one hundred (100) days after the date of delivery.
At such recall election, this question shall be placed on the ballot: "Shall (naming the officer) be allowed to continue as (naming the office)?" with provisions on the ballot for marking "Yes" or "No" on such question. If a majority of the votes cast at such election shall be "Yes," such officer shall remain in office. If a majority of the votes cast shall be "No," such officer shall be considered removed, the office shall be declared vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled as provided for in this Charter. The officer removed by such election shall not be eligible for appointment to the vacancy thereby created.
(Amended 11/06/20212; 11/08/2016)