Any five (5) qualified voters may commence initiative or referendum
proceedings by filing with the City Secretary 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 City Secretary shall issue the appropriate petition
blanks to the Petitioners’ Committee.
When a referendum petition is filed with the City Secretary,
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
the certification of the election results by the election officials.
If a majority of the votes cast at a recall election shall be
against removal of the elected official named on the ballot, he shall
continue in office. If the majority of the votes cast at the election
be for the removal of the elected official named on the ballot, the
Council shall immediately declare his office vacant and such vacancy
shall be filled in accordance with provision 2.08 of this charter
for the filling of vacancies.
No recall petition shall be filed against an elected official
within six (6) months after he takes office.
The elected official whose removal is sought may, within five
(5) days after such recall petition has been presented to the Council,
request that a public hearing be held to permit him to present facts
pertinent to the charges specified in the recall petition. In this
event, the Council shall order such public hearings to be held, not
less than five (5) days nor more than fifteen (15) days after receiving
such request for a public hearing.
In case all of the requirements of this Charter shall have been
met and the Council shall fail or refuse to receive the initiative,
referendum or recall petition, or order such initiative, referendum
or recall election, or discharge other duties imposed upon said Council
by the provisions of this Charter with reference to such initiative,
referendum or recall, then the County Judge of Ellis County, Texas,
shall discharge any such duties herein provided to be discharged by
the City Secretary or by the Council. In addition, any qualified voter
in the City may seek judicial relief in the district court of Ellis
County, Texas, to have any of the provisions of this Charter pertaining
to initiative, referendum or recall carried out by the proper official.