The citizens of the City of Glenn Heights reserve the power of direct legislation by initiative, and in the exercise of power, may propose any ordinance not in conflict with this Charter, the State Constitution, or the state laws, except an ordinance appropriating money or authorizing the levy of taxes, or an ordinance repealing an ordinance appropriating money, levying taxes, or an ordinance involving zoning or annexation. Any initiated ordinance may be submitted to the Council by a petition signed by registered qualified voters of the City of Glenn Heights equal in number to at least twenty-five (25%) percent of the number of registered voters in the city.
(Amended by Ordinance O-846-07 at an election held May 12, 2007, prop. 8)
The citizens reserve the power to approve or reject at the polls any legislation enacted by a Council which is subject to the initiative process under this Charter, except an ordinance which is enacted for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety which contains a statement of its urgency. Prior to the effective date of any ordinance which is subject to referendum, a petition signed by registered qualified voters of the City, equal in number to at least twenty-five (25%) percent of the registered voters in the city, may be filed with the City Secretary requesting that such ordinance be either repealed or submitted to a vote of the people. When such a petition has been certified as sufficient by the City Secretary, the ordinance specified in the petition shall not go into effect, or further action thereunder shall be suspended if it shall have gone into effect, until and unless it is approved by the voters as herein provided.
(Amended by Ordinance O-846-07 at an election held May 12, 2007, prop. 8)
Initiative petition papers shall contain the full text of the proposed legislation in the form of an ordinance, including a descriptive caption. The signatures to the initiative or referendum need not be all appended to one paper, but each signer shall sign his/her name in ink or indelible pencil, shall add his/her signature and his/her place of residence by street and number and his/her voter registration number. One of the signers of each separate paper petition shall make an affidavit that he/she, and he/she only, personally circulated such petition and that signature appended thereto was made in his/her presence and is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be, and further that no signature shall have been placed thereon forty-five (45) days prior to the filing of such petition.
Within ten (10) business days after an initiative or referendum petition is filed, the City Secretary shall determine whether the same is signed by the requisite number of registered voters. The City Secretary shall declare void any petition paper which does not have an affidavit attached thereto as required by Section 4.03 of this Article. In examining the petitions, the City Secretary shall write the letters “D.V.” in red ink opposite the names of signers found not registered to vote. After completing examination of the petition, the City Secretary shall certify the results thereof to the Council at its next regular meeting, stating the number of persons found on the petition who are registered to vote and the number of persons found on the petition who are not registered to vote. If the certificate of the City Secretary shall show an initiative or referendum petition to be insufficient the City Secretary shall notify the person filing the petition, and it may be amended within ten (10) business days from the date of such notice by filing a supplementary petition upon additional papers signed and filed as provided for in the original petition. Within ten (10) business days after such amendment is filed, the City Secretary shall examine the amended petition and certify as to its sufficiency. If the amended petition is found to be insufficient, the City Secretary shall return the petition to the person filing same, without prejudice to the filing of a new petition for the same purpose: provided however, that upon finding the amended petition to be insufficient, no new petition covering the same subject matter shall be filed until six (6) months shall have elapsed from the date of filing of the original petition.
When the Council receives an authorized initiative petition certified by the City Secretary to be sufficient, the Council shall either:
(a) 
Pass the initiated ordinance without amendment within thirty (30) days after the date of the certification to the Council;
(b) 
Submit said initiated ordinance without amendment to a vote of the registered voters of the City at a regular or special election to be held within ninety (90) days after the date of the certification to the Council; or
(c) 
At such election, submit the initiated ordinance without amendment and an alternative ordinance proposed by the Council to a vote of the qualified voters of the City. The ballot shall state the captions of the initiated ordinance and the alternative ordinance, clearly designating them “Ordinance No. 1” and “Ordinance No. 2,” respectively, and shall set forth below the captions on separate lines the words “For Ordinance No. 1,” “For Ordinance No. 2,” and “Against Both Ordinances.” Each voter shall vote “For” only one ordinance, or “Against Both Ordinances,” and a vote for one ordinance shall be counted as a vote against the other ordinance.
When the Council receives an authorized referendum petition certified by the City Secretary to be sufficient, the Council shall reconsider the referred ordinance, and if upon such reconsideration such ordinance is not repealed, it shall be submitted to the voters at a regular or special election to be held not more than ninety (90) days after the date of the certification to the Council. Special elections on initiated or referred ordinances shall not be held more frequently than once each six (6) months, and no ordinance on the same subject as an initiated ordinance which has been defeated at any election may be initiated by the voters within two (2) years from the date of such election.
(Amended by Ordinance O-09-12/Res. R-19-12 at an election held on May 12, 2012, prop. 3)
The ballot used in voting upon an initiated or referred ordinance shall state the caption of the ordinance and below the caption shall set forth on separate lines the words: “For the Ordinance” and “Against the Ordinance.”
An initiated ordinance and an alternative ordinance proposed by the Council which are submitted at the same election shall be appropriately identified as the initiated or referred ordinance and as the ordinance proposed by the Council.
Any number of ordinances may be voted upon at the same election in accordance with the provisions of this Article. An ordinance submitted and receiving an affirmative majority of the votes cast, shall there upon be effective as an ordinance of the City. An ordinance so adopted may be repealed or amended at any time after the expiration of two (2) years by a four-fifths (4/5) vote of the Council. A referred ordinance which is not approved by a majority of the votes cast shall be deemed thereupon repealed.
The citizens of the City reserve the power to recall any member of the Council for acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, incompetence, or official misconduct and may exercise such power by filing with the City Secretary a petition, signed by registered qualified voters of the City equal in number to at least thirty percent (30%) of the number of votes cast at the last regular municipal election of the City, or by 150 registered qualified voters, whichever is greater, demanding the removal of a member of the City Council. The petition shall be signed and verified in the manner required, by the form prescribed below. Such petition shall contain a statement of the specific acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, incompetence, and/or official misconduct for which the removal is sought, and one of the signers of each petition paper shall make an affidavit as prescribed below. “Malfeasance” is a wrongful act that a person has no legal right to do. “Misfeasance” is the improper doing of an act that a person might lawfully do. “Incompetence” means gross ignorance of official duties, gross carelessness in the discharge of official duties, or inability or unfitness to promptly and properly discharge official duties because of a serious mental or physical defect that did not exist at the time of the Council Member’s election. “Official misconduct” means intentional unlawful behavior relating to official duties of a Councilmember, including the intentional or corrupt failure, refusal, or neglect of a Council Member to perform a duty imposed upon the Councilmember by law. The following form of petition and acknowledgement is herein prescribed:
“By our signatures affixed hereto, we hereby affirm that we seek the recall of __________ who holds the elected office of __________, for the following specific grounds of misfeasance, malfeasance, incompetence, and/or official misconduct as prescribed in Article 4, Section 4.07 of the Charter of the City of Glenn Heights:
“And we further affirm that the information given below is true and correct:
Voter Registration Number
Printed Name
Address
Signature
Date Signed
STATE OF TEXAS
COUNTIES OF DALLAS AND ELLIS
“BEFORE ME, the undersigned authority, personally appeared __________, who, after being duly sworn by me stated, upon his/her oath, that he/she circulated the above Petition; that he/she was personally present when each of the above signatures were affixed thereto; and that each person whose signature is affixed thereto, affirmed to him/her that the information provided by them was true and correct.
SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED BEFORE ME this the _____ day of __________, 20__.
Notary Public, State of Texas
My Commission Expires:
(Amended by Ordinance 728-02 at an election held on May 4, 2002; Amended by Ordinance O-846-07 at an election held May 12, 2007, prop. 8)
Within fifteen (15) days after the date of the filing of the papers constituting the recall petition, the person performing the duties of City Secretary shall verify the signatures on the petition and then present such petition to the Council.
The officer whose removal is sought may, after such recall petition has been presented to the Council, request in writing to the Council at the next regular meeting a public hearing to be held to permit him/her to present facts pertinent to the charges specified in the recall petition. In this event, the Council shall order such public hearing to be held, not less than five (5) days nor more than fifteen (15) days after receiving such request for a public hearing.
If the officer whose removal is sought does not resign, then it shall become the duty of the Council to order an election and fix a date for holding such recall election. The date of such election shall be held at the earliest date as permitted by state law.
Ballots used at recall elections shall conform to the following requirements:
(a) 
With respect to each person whose removal is sought the question shall be submitted Shall (Name) be removed from the office of City Council.
(b) 
Immediately below each such question there shall be printed the two following propositions, one above the other, in the order indicated:
“For the recall of (Name)”
“Against the recall of (Name)”
If a majority of the votes cast at a recall election shall be against removal of the individual named on the ballot, he/she shall continue in office. If a majority of the votes cast at such election be for the removal of the individual named on the ballot, the Council shall immediately declare his/her office vacant and such vacancy shall be filled in accordance with the provisions of the Charter for the filling of vacancies. An individual thus removed shall not be a candidate to succeed himself in an election called to fill the vacancy thereby created.
No recall petition shall be filed against any officer of the City within six (6) months after his/her election, or within one (1) year after an election for such officer’s recall.
(Amended by Ordinance O-846-07 at an election held May 12, 2007, prop. 9)
In case all the requirements of this Charter shall have been met and the Council shall fail or refuse to receive the recall petition or order such recall election, or discharge any other duties imposed upon said Council by the provisions of the Charter with reference to such recall, then the County Judge of Dallas County, Texas, shall discharge any such duties herein provided to be discharged by the person performing the duties of the City Secretary or by the Council, or in the event the County Judge shall fail to discharge such duty, an action for Writ of Mandamus to compel the discharge of such duty may be brought in any district court of Dallas or Ellis Counties, Texas.
(Amended by Ordinance O-846-07 at an election held May 12, 2007, prop. 10)
In the event that, with regard to any petition for initiative, referendum, or recall filed with the City Secretary, the City Council is presented with credible evidence that signatures on such petition were secured or added by means of fraud or other false inducement, the Council may, by majority vote, order the investigation of such evidence by the police department or other law enforcement agency and may delay ordering an election until such investigation is completed provided, however, that it shall be grounds for removal from office for any member of the council to vote for such an investigation solely for the purpose of delay. In the event such investigation reveals the substantial likelihood of fraud or other false inducement, the Council may decline to order an election and may refer such matter to the appropriate state or county official for prosecution. In the event such investigation reveals no substantial likelihood of fraud or other false inducement, the Council shall order an election for the next available uniform election date.
(Amended by Ordinance O-846-07 at an election held May 12, 2007, prop. 11)