Any five (5) qualified voters may commence initiative, referendum
or recall proceedings by filing with the City Clerk an affidavit stating
they will constitute the petitioners' committee and be responsible
for circulating the petition and filing it in proper form, stating
their names and addresses and specifying the address to which all
notices to the committee are to be sent, and setting out in full the
proposed initiative ordinance or citing the ordinance sought to be
reconsidered.
Promptly after the affidavit of the petitioners' committee
is filed, the clerk shall issue the appropriate petition blanks to
the petitioners' committee.
When a referendum petition is timely filed with the City Clerk,
the ordinance sought to be reconsidered shall be suspended from taking
effect. Such suspension shall terminate when:
(1) There is a final determination of insufficiency of the petition,
or
(2) The petitioners' committee withdraws the petition, or
(3) The Council repeals the ordinance, or
(4) The election results sustaining the ordinance have been certified.
When a recall petition has been certified to the City Council
as sufficient by the City Clerk, the City Council shall at its next
meeting after receipt of such certification fix a date for holding
the election. The election shall be held at the next available regular
or special election date for which timely notice has been given.
An initiative, referendum, or recall petition may be withdrawn
at any time prior to the fifteenth (15th) day preceding the day scheduled
for a vote of the City by filing with the City Clerk a request for
withdrawal signed by at least four (4) members of the petitioners'
committee. Upon the filing of such request, the petition shall have
no further force or effect and all proceedings thereon shall be terminated.