[Amended 11-4-2008]
Any five (5) qualified voters may commence initiative or referendum
proceedings by filing with the Town Clerk an affidavit stating they
will constitute the petitioners' committee and be responsible
for circulating the petition and filing in it 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. Any such petition issued by the Clerk
shall be filed with the Clerk within ninety (90) days of issuance.
When a Referendum Petition is filed pertaining to an Ordinance
that has not taken effect, 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) Upon certification of the election results.
However, Ordinances which are in existence and in effect shall
not be suspended until the Town Council either repeals the Ordinance
or until after the Referendum Petition has been approved by a majority
of voters voting on the petition and the election results certified.