The voters shall have the power to propose any ordinance except
an ordinance appropriating money or authorizing the levy of taxes,
and to adopt or reject the same at the polls, such power being known
as the initiative. Any initiative ordinance may be submitted to the
council by a petition signed by qualified voters of the city, equal
in number to at least fifty per cent of the number of votes cast at
the last regular municipal election.
The voters shall have power to approve or reject at the polls any ordinance passed by the council, or submitted by the council to a vote of the voters, except as provided in Section
51, such power being known as the referendum. Ordinances submitted to the council by initiative petition and passed by the council without change shall be subject to the referendum in the same manner as the other ordinances. At any time after the enactment by the council of any ordinance which is subject to a referendum, a petition signed by qualified voters of the city equal in number to at least fifty per cent of the number of votes cast at the last preceding regular municipal election may be filed with the city secretary requesting that any such ordinance be either repealed or submitted to a vote of the voters.
Initiative petition papers shall contain the full text of the
proposed ordinance. The signatures to initiative or referendum petitions
need not all be appended to one paper, but to each separate petition
there shall be attached a statement of the circulator thereof as provided
by this section. Each signer of any petition paper shall sign his
name in ink or indelible pencil and shall indicate after his name
his place of residence by street and number, or other description
sufficient to identify the place. There shall appear in each petition
the names and addresses of five voters, who, as a committee of the
petitioners, shall be regarded as responsible for the circulation
and filing of the petition. Attached to each separate petition paper
there shall be an affidavit of the circulator thereof that he, and
he only personally circulated the foregoing paper, that it bears a
stated number of signatures, that all signatures appended thereto
were made in his presence, and that he believes them to be genuine
signatures of the persons whose names they purport to be.
All petition papers comprising an initiative or referendum petition
shall be assembled and filed with the city secretary as one instrument.
Within ten days after a petition is filed, the city secretary shall
determine whether each paper of the petition has a proper statement
of the circulator and whether the petition is signed by a sufficient
number of qualified voters. The city secretary shall declare any petition
paper entirely invalid which does not have attached thereto an affidavit
signed by the circulator thereof. If a petition paper is found to
be signed by more persons than the number of signatures, certified
those in excess of the number certified shall be disregarded [sic].
If a petition paper is found to be signed by fewer persons than the
number certified, the signatures shall be accepted unless void on
other grounds. After completing his examination of the petition, the
city secretary shall certify the result thereof to the council at
its next regular meeting. If he shall certify that the petition is
insufficient he shall set forth in his certificate the particulars
in which it is defective and shall at once notify the committee of
the petitioners of his findings.
An initiative or referendum petition may be amended at any time
within ten days after the notification of insufficiency has been sent
by the city secretary, by filing a supplementary petition upon additional
papers signed and filed as provided in case of an original petition.
The city secretary shall, within five days after such an amendment
is filed, make examination of the amended petition and, if the petition
be still insufficient, he shall file his certificate to that effect
in his office and notify the committee of the petitioners of his findings
and no further action shall be had on such insufficient petition.
The finding of the insufficiency of a petition shall not prejudice
the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.
When a referendum petition, or amended petition as defined in
this Charter, 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 approved by the voters, as hereinafter
provided.
Whenever the council receives a certified initiative or referendum
petition from the city secretary, it shall proceed at once to consider
such petition. A proposed initiated ordinance shall be read and provision
shall be made for a public hearing upon the proposed ordinance. The
council shall take final action on the initiated or referred ordinance
not later than sixty days after the date on which such ordinance was
submitted to the council by the city secretary. A referred ordinance
shall be reconsidered by the council and its final vote upon such
reconsideration shall be upon the question, “Shall the ordinance
in the referendum petition be repealed?”
If the council shall fail to pass an ordinance proposed by initiative
petition or shall pass it in form different from that set forth in
the petition therefor, or if the council fails to repeal a referred
ordinance, the proposed or referred ordinance shall be submitted to
the voters not less than thirty days nor more than sixty days from
the date the council takes its final vote thereon. The council may,
in its discretion, and if no regular election is to be held within
such period, shall provide for a special election.
The city secretary shall publish in the official newspaper every
initiated or referred ordinance at least 15 days before the date of
election on said ordinance. Ordinances submitted to vote of the voters
in accordance with the initiative and referendum provisions of this
Charter shall be submitted by ballot title, which shall be prepared
in all cases by the city attorney. The ballot title may be different
from the legal title of any such initiated or referred ordinance and
shall be a clear, concise statement, without argument or prejudice,
descriptive of the substance of such ordinance, if a paper ballot,
shall have below the ballot title the following propositions, one
above the other, in the order indicated: “FOR THE ORDINANCE”
and “AGAINST THE ORDINANCE.” Any number of ordinances
may be voted on at the same election and may be submitted on the same
ballot, but any paper ballot used for voting thereon shall be for
that purpose only. If voting machines are used, the ballot title of
any ordinance shall have below it the same two propositions, one above
the other or one preceding the other in the order indicated, and the
elector shall be given an opportunity to vote for either of the two
propositions and thereby to vote for or against the ordinance.
If a majority of the voters voting on a proposed initiative
ordinance shall vote in favor thereof, it shall thereupon be an ordinance
of the city. A referred ordinance, which is not approved by a majority
of the voters voting thereon, shall thereupon be deemed repealed.
If conflicting ordinances are approved by the voters at the same elections,
the one receiving the greatest number of affirmative votes shall prevail
to the extent of such conflict.
Initiative and referendum ordinances adopted or approved by
the voters shall be published, and may be amended or repealed by the
council as in the case of other ordinances.
The mayor or any member of the council may be removed from office
by recall.
Any voter or group of voters of the city of Cameron may make
and file with the city secretary an affidavit containing the name
or names of the officer or officers whose removal is sought and a
statement of the grounds for removal. The secretary shall thereupon
deliver to the voter or voters making such affidavit copies of petition
blanks demanding such removal. Such blanks when issued by the city
secretary shall bear the signature of that officer and be addressed
to the council, and shall be numbered, dated, and indicate the name
of person or persons to whom issued. The petition blanks when issued
shall bear the name of the officer whose removal is sought. The city
secretary shall enter in a record to be kept in his office the name
of the voter or voters to whom the petition blanks were issued and
the number issued to said person or persons.
The recall petition, to be effective, must be returned and filed with the city secretary within thirty (30) days after the filing of the affidavit required in Section
92, and it must be signed by qualified voters of the city equal in number to at least fifty (50) percent of the number of votes cast at the last regular municipal election. Such recall petition shall conform to the provision of Section 82 hereof, so far as same is applicable, and no petition papers shall be accepted as a part of a petition unless it bears the signature of the city secretary, as required in Section
92 hereof. However, in the event the council member or council members sought to be recalled represent single member districts, the only person entitled to sign the recall petition and/or vote for the recall of that particular council member must be residents of the particular ward corresponding with the residence of the council member sought to be recalled.
The city secretary shall at once examine the recall petition
and if he finds it complies with the provisions of this Charter, shall
within five (5) days submit it to the council with his certificate
to that effect and notify the officer sought to be recalled of such
action. If the officer whose removal is sought does not resign within
five (5) days after such notice the council shall thereupon order
and fix a date for holding a recall election. Any such election shall
be held not less than thirty days or more than sixty days after the
petition has been presented to the council or at the same time as
any municipal election held within such period; but if no such municipal
election is to be held within such period, the council shall call
a special election to be held within the time aforesaid.
Ballots used at recall elections shall conform to the following
requirements:
(1) With respect
to each person whose removal is sought, the question shall be submitted
“Shall (name of person) be removed from office of (name of office)
by recall?”
(2) Immediately
below each such question there shall be printed the two following
propositions, one above the other, in the order indicated:
If a majority of the votes cast at a recall election shall be
against the recall of the officer named in the ballot, he shall continue
in office for the remainder of his unexpired term, subject to recall
as before. If a majority of the votes at such election be for the
recall of the officer named on the ballot, he shall, regardless of
any technical defects in the recall petition be deemed removed from
office and the vacancy shall be filled by the council as in other
vacancies.
No recall petition shall be filed against the mayor or a council
member within six months after he takes office nor in respect to an
officer subjected to a recall election and not removed thereby, until
at least six months after such election.
Should the council fail or refuse to order any of the elections
as provided in this article, when all the requirements for such election
have been complied with by the petitioning voter in conformity with
this article of the Charter, then any Judge of a District Court of
Milam County, Texas, upon proper application being made therefor by
a voter or group of voters of the city of Cameron, may order such
elections and enforce the carrying into effect of the provisions of
this article of the Charter.