When the petition is found to be sufficient, the person designated by the Council shall so certify to the Council at its next meeting, stating the number of petitioners and the percentage of the total number of voters which they constitute, and the Council shall at once read the ordinance and refer it to an appropriate committee, which may be a committee of the whole.
The Council shall thereupon provide for public hearings upon the ordinance, after the holding of which the ordinance shall be finally acted upon by the Council not later than sixty-five days after the date upon which it was submitted to the Council by the person designated by the Council.
If the Council fails to adopt the proposed ordinance, or it is adopted in a form different from that set forth in the petition and unsatisfactory to the petitioners, the proposed ordinance shall be submitted by the Council to the vote of the registered voters at the next election; but if the number of signers of the petition is at least equal to fifteen percent of the number of voters casting ballots at the last regular City election, the Council shall call a special election upon the measure. Such special election shall be held not less than thirty nor more than forty-five days from the date of final action on the ordinance by the Council or after the expiration of sixty-five days from the date of submission to the Council when there has been no final action; but if a regular election is to occur within three months, the Council may submit the ordinance at that election. If the Council passes the proposed ordinance with amendments and at least four-fifths of the committee of petitioners does not express their dissatisfaction with such amended form by a statement filed with the person designated by the Council within ten days of the adoption thereof by the Council, the ordinance need not be submitted to the registered voters.