City of Odessa, TX ARTICLE VIII INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM

§ 86 Initiative.

(a) The voters shall have power at their option to propose ordinances, which are legislative in nature and not withdrawn from the initiatory field by law or judicial decision, exclusive of ordinances granting franchises and privileges, and to adopt the same at the polls, such power being known as the initiative. A petition meeting the requirements hereinafter provided and requesting the city council to pass an ordinance therein set forth shall be termed an initiative petition and shall be acted upon as hereinafter provided.

(b) Signatures to initiative petitions need not all be on one paper but the circulator of each such paper shall make an affidavit that the signatures appended thereto were made in his presence and are genuine signatures of the persons whose names they purport to be. Such petition shall be signed in ink or indelible pencil and each signer shall place after his name the date when his signature was made and his place of residence by street and number or other description sufficient to identify the place. All such petition papers pertaining to any one measure shall have written or printed thereon the names and addresses of at least five (5) qualified voters who shall be officially regarded as filing the petition, and who shall constitute a committee of the petitioners for the purpose hereinafter named. All petition papers relating to the same measure shall be assembled and filed in the office of the city secretary as one instrument.

(c) An initiative petition to be sufficient shall be signed by qualified and registered voters equal in number to at least fifty (50) per cent of those who voted in the last regular municipal election, but in no event shall such number be less than seven thousand five hundred (7,500). Within ten (10) days after the filing of a petition, the secretary shall ascertain whether it be signed as provided in this section and shall attach thereto a certificate showing the result of the secretary’s examination. If, by the city secretary’s certificate, of which notice in writing shall be given to two (2) or more of the committee of the petitioners, the petition is shown to be insufficient, it may be amended within ten (10) days of the date of such certificate by filing supplementary petition papers. Within ten (10) days after such an amendment, the secretary shall make examination of the amended petition; and if the secretary’s certificate shall show the same still to be insufficient, the secretary shall file the petition and notify each member of the committee of that fact. The final finding of the insufficiency of a petition shall not prejudice the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.

(d) If an initiative petition be found sufficient, the secretary shall so certify and shall submit the measure to the city council at its next meeting, and the council shall at once read and refer it to an appropriate committee, which may be a committee of the whole. Provisions shall be made for public hearings upon the proposed measure before the committee to which it is referred. Thereafter the committee shall report the measure to the city council with its recommendation thereon not later than sixty (60) days after the date upon which such measure was submitted to the city council by the city secretary. Upon receiving the measure from the committee, the city council shall at once proceed to consider it and shall take final action thereon within thirty (30) days from the date of such committee report.

(e) If the city council shall fail to pass a proposed measure, or shall pass it in a form different from that set forth in the petition therefor, the committee of the petitioners may require that it may be submitted to a vote of the qualified voters either in its original form or with any change or addition presented in writing at a public hearing before the committee to which it was referred, or during its consideration by the city council. If the committee of the petitioners require the submission of the measure to a vote of the qualified voters, they shall certify that fact to the secretary and file in his office a certified copy of the measure in the form in which it is to be submitted, within ten (10) days after final action on such measure by the city council.

(f) Upon receipt of the certificate and certified copy of the proposed measure, as provided in the foregoing subsection, the secretary shall certify the fact to the city council at its next regular meeting. If any municipal election is to be held not more than six (6) months or less than thirty (30) days after the receipt of the secretary’s certificate by the city council, the proposed measure shall be submitted to a vote of the qualified voters at the first such election. When no municipal election is to be held within the time aforesaid, the city council may provide for submitting the measure to the voters at a special election to be held not less than thirty (30) days after the date when provision is made therefor by the council. When no other provision is made as to the time of submitting a measure proposed by initiative petition to the electors, it shall be submitted at the first municipal election held after the expiration of the period of six (6) months mentioned in this section. Any such measure approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon shall be considered adopted and shall take effect at the time indicated therein.

(g) When a measure proposed by initiative petition is passed by the city council, but not in its original form, and is required by the committee of the petitioners to be submitted to a vote of the qualified voters, the measure as passed by the city council shall not take effect until after such vote, and, if the measure so submitted be approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon, the measure as passed by the city council shall be deemed repealed.

(Char. art. VIII, sec. 1; Ordinance 85-28, sec. 4, adopted 4/9/85)

§ 87 Referendum.

(a) The qualified voters shall have power at their option to approve or reject at the polls any ordinance, legislative in nature and not withdrawn from the initiatory field by law or judicial decision, passed by the city council or submitted by such council to a vote of the qualified voters, such power being known as the referendum. Measures submitted to the city council by initiative petition and passed by the council without change, or passed in an amended form and not required by the committee of petitioners to be submitted to a vote of the qualified voters, shall be subject to the referendum in the same manner as other measures.

(b) No ordinance shall go into effect until thirty (30) days after its passage by the city council unless it be declared an emergency measure on the ground of urgent public need for the preservation of peace, health, safety or property, the facts showing such urgency being specifically stated in the ordinance itself or unless necessary for the issuance of bonds and other obligations or to levy taxes. No ordinance granting any public utility franchise, or amending or repealing any measure adopted by the qualified voters at the polls, or adopted by the city council in compliance with an initiative petition, shall be regarded as an emergency measure.

(c) If within thirty (30) days after final passage of a measure by the city council a petition signed by qualified and registered voters of the city equal in number to at least fifty (50) per cent of those who voted in the last regular municipal election, but in no case by less than seven thousand five hundred (7,500), be filed with the city secretary requesting that such measures or any part thereof be either repealed or submitted to a vote of the qualified voters, the measure shall not, unless it be an emergency measure or a measure that is not legally subject to referendum, become operative until the steps indicated therein have been taken.

(d) The signatures to a referendum petition need not all be on one paper but the circulator of each separate paper shall make affidavit that the signatures appended thereto were made in his presence and are the genuine signatures of the persons whose names they purport to be. Such petitions shall be signed in ink or indelible pencil and each signer shall place after his name the date when his signature was made and his place of residence by street number, or other description sufficient to identify the place. All such papers pertaining to any one measure shall have written or printed thereon the names and addresses of at least five (5) qualified voters who shall be officially regarded as filing the petition and shall constitute a committee of the petitioners for the purposes hereinafter named. All such papers relating to the same measure shall be assembled and filed in the office of the city secretary as one instrument. A referendum petition need not contain the text of the measure designated therein and of which repeal is sought as a whole, but when the repeal of part of a measure is sought such part shall be set forth in the petition.

(e) Within ten (10) days after the filing of a referendum petition the secretary shall ascertain whether it be signed as provided in section 1(c) [86(c)][1] of this article and shall attach to the petition a certificate showing the result of such examination and shall give notice thereof to the committee of the petitioners. If by the secretary’s certificate the petition is shown to be insufficient, it may be amended within ten (10) days from the date of such certificate by filing supplementary petition papers with additional signatures. The secretary shall within ten (10) days after such amendment make like examination of the amended petition and certify the result thereof.

[1] Editor’s note–The new number appears in brackets after the original number.

(f) If a referendum petition, or amended petition, be found sufficient, the secretary shall certify that fact to the city council at its next regular meeting, and, unless the measure or part thereof specified in the petition be an emergency measure, it shall not go into effect unless approved by the qualified voters as hereinafter provided. Upon receipt of the secretary’s certificate of sufficiency, the city council shall proceed to reconsider the measure, and its final vote upon such reconsideration shall be upon the question, “Shall the measure (or part of the measure) as specified in the referendum petition be repealed?” If upon such reconsideration the measure, or part thereof, be not repealed, it shall be submitted to the qualified voters at the next municipal election held not less than thirty (30) days after such final vote[2] of the city council by a four-fifths vote its members may submit the measure to the qualified voters at a special election to be held not sooner than the time aforesaid. If when submitted to the qualified voters any such measure, or part thereof, be not approved by a majority of those voting thereon, it shall be deemed repealed.

[2] Editor’s note–Apparently some words have been omitted here. A new sentence should probably begin at this point.

(g) Measures proposed by the initiative petition, or required by referendum petition or by the city council to be submitted to the qualified voters, shall be submitted pursuant to the election laws of the State of Texas.

(h) Any number of measures may be voted on at the same election and may be submitted on the same ballot, but the ballot used for voting on measures shall be for that purpose only.

(i) Measures passed as emergency measures shall be subject to referendum, but they shall not be suspended from going into operation while referendum proceedings are pending. If, when submitted to a vote of the qualified voters, an emergency measure be not approved by a majority of those voting thereon, it shall be considered repealed as regards any further action thereunder, and all rights and privileges conferred by it shall thereafter be null and void; but any such measure so repealed shall be deemed sufficient authority for any payment made or expense incurred in accordance therewith prior to the vote thereon.

(j) If two (2) or more measures adopted or approved at the same election conflict in respect to any of their provisions, they shall go into effect in respect of such of their provisions as are not in conflict and the one receiving the highest affirmative vote shall prevail insofar as their provisions conflict. Except as otherwise provided in this Charter, measures adopted or approved by the qualified voters shall be subject to amendment or repeal by the city council as in the case of other measures.

(Char. art. VIII, sec. 2; Ordinance 85-28, sec. 4, adopted 4/9/85; Ordinance 97-19, sec. 2, adopted 5/6/97)