The citizens of the township are hereby guaranteed the right
to be informed of township actions, the right to be heard by township
officials and the right to participate in township affairs as provided
by this Charter.
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Commentary: This Article attempts
to bring together in one (1) place all of those provisions of the
Charter which are intended to afford various rights to the public.
To a considerable extent, then, this Article repeats other provisions.
However, in some instances matters referred to elsewhere in passing
are fleshed out here (e.g., the annual report). In other instances,
this Article contains provisions, e.g., initiative, referendum and
recall, not found elsewhere. It was felt that principles of such fundamental
importance could bear some repetition. It should be noted that the
present Board of Commissioners, although frequently not required to
do so, now provides a fair number of these rights to the public.
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This Charter provides that the public shall have the right to
be informed of township activities as follows:
A. By requiring the Board to advertise its calendar of regular meetings, pursuant to §
C402A.
B. By requiring the posting of notice of meetings of the Board and its committees, pursuant to §
C402B.
C. By requiring meetings of the Board and its committees to be open to the public, pursuant to §
C402C.
D. By mandating that minutes of public meetings be open for public inspection, pursuant to §
C406.
E. By requiring advertisement of proposed ordinances prior to enactment, pursuant to §
C501A.
F. By requiring advertisement after passage of ordinances and by providing for the right to inspect ordinances, pursuant to §§
C501G and
C503.
G. By providing for the right to inspect and to purchase a copy of the codification of ordinances and to receive by subscription copies of changes thereto, pursuant to §
C504B.
H. By providing for public availability of the President's budget message and proposed financial plan (see §
C1205A), the preliminary budgets (see §
C1205C) and requiring a public hearing on the budget (see §
C1205D).
I. By requiring notice of vacancies on citizens' groups and requiring public invitation to citizens to apply therefor, pursuant to §
C1302B.
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Commentary: This section simply recapitulates
rights guaranteed elsewhere in the Charter.
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The President's report on the state of the township, required by §
C602B(1)(b), shall be presented by the President to the Board at a regular Board meeting. Said report shall be made available to the public and press in such manner as to afford it the widest practicable dissemination. Copies shall be available to the public at the office of the township.
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Commentary: A summary of the President's
state of the township message is to be included in the Board's
annual report to the People. See § 1405B.
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At least once in each calendar year, the Board shall make a
report to the citizens. A copy of such report shall be distributed
to each household in the township. The report shall include, at a
minimum:
A. The summary of the report of the independent auditor, prepared as provided in §
C1108.
B. A summary of the President's message on the state of the township,
in such form as he shall approve.
C. Information concerning such dates of meetings of the Board, its committees
and of citizens' groups as have been scheduled.
D. A summary of the operating and capital budgets then in effect.
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Commentary: The Board presently provides
such an annual report to the citizens. This section requires continuation
of the practice and specifies the material which must at a minimum
be included.
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Citizens shall have the right to propose ordinances by an initiative
procedure and the right to require reconsideration by the Board of
an adopted ordinance by a referendum procedure, as is hereafter provided.
A. Initiative. The registered electors of the township shall have power
to propose ordinances to the Board, and, if the Board fails to adopt
an ordinance so proposed without any change in substance, to adopt
or reject it at a primary, municipal or general election. No such
proposed initiative ordinance shall contain more than one (1) subject
which shall be clearly expressed in its title.
B. Referendum. The registered electors of the township shall have power
to require reconsideration by the Board of any adopted ordinance and,
if the Board fails to repeal an ordinance so reconsidered, to approve
or reject it at a primary, municipal or general election.
C. Exceptions. The powers of initiative and referendum set forth in
this section shall not extend to the budget, zoning, any emergency
ordinance, any ordinance levying an assessment or providing for the
issuance of special tax bills or any ordinance appropriating money,
levying taxes or fixing salaries of municipal officers or employees.
Any person holding an elective office in the township who, following
the date of his election to his then term, has pleaded nolo contendere
or guilty to, or has been sentenced by a court of plenary jurisdiction
for, the crime of extortion, embezzlement, bribery, fraudulent conversion
of public moneys or property or malfeasance, misfeasance or misdemeanor
in office, or conspiracy to commit any of the above crimes, shall
be subject to removal from office at a recall election in the manner
hereinafter set forth.
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Commentary: See Commentary to § C308.
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A recall of any person holding elective office in the township shall be initiated upon petition signed by thirty percent (30%) of the registered electors of the township or, in the case of a Commissioner, by thirty percent (30%) of the registered electors of the ward he represents. Every recall petition shall name the office and officer against whom it is directed and shall state with specificity the grounds on which it is based. The procedure for the circulation of such petitions, filing, validation and judicial review shall be the same as that provided as to initiative and referendum petitions in §
C1409.
Upon the final determination of the validity and sufficiency
of a recall petition, the President of the Board shall notify the
incumbent named in the petition that the petition has been filed.
All recall procedures shall terminate in the event that the
subject incumbent resigns from office.
A person who has been removed from an elective office by a recall
election or who has resigned from such an elective office after a
recall petition directed to him has been filed shall not be eligible
for appointment to any office of the township within the two-year
period following his removal or resignation except in the event of
reversal of his conviction or a pardon.
A plea or conviction which was the basis of the filing of a
recall petition shall not be the basis for a subsequent recall petition
against such official.