Any elected City official shall be subject to recall or removal from office by the qualified voters or the City for reason of incompetence, noncompliance with the Charter, misconduct or malfeasance in office. The people of the City reserve (a) the power to recall the Mayor or any other Member of the City Council and (b) the sole authority to determine if the reasons cited on the recall petition are valid.
(Ordinance 1117 adopted 2/28/13, prop. 18, approved at election of 5/11/13)
Before the question of recall of an elected official shall be submitted to the voters of the City, a petition demanding such question shall first be filed with the City Secretary. The petition shall be signed by qualified voters of the City equal in number to at least twelve and one-half percent (12.5%) of the number of qualified voters registered to vote at the last general City election or 250, whichever is greater. Each person signing a recall petition shall affix his residence address and date of signing.
(Ordinance 1374 adopted 2/6/2024, prop. C, approved at election of 5/4/2024)
Any five qualified voters of the City may commence recall proceedings by filing with the City Secretary an affidavit stating that they will constitute the petitioners’ committee. The committee shall be responsible for circulating the petition and filing it in proper form, stating their names and addresses and specifying the address(es) to which all notices to the committee are to be sent. The committee shall provide the name of the person or persons to be recalled and the reasons for the recall. The City Secretary, within a period of five (5) working days from the time the affidavit was filed, shall issue petition blanks to the person(s) making such affidavit. The petition blanks shall bear the signature of the City Secretary and be of such form as prescribed in Section 8.04 and shall be consecutively numbered, dated, and indicate the name(s) of the person to whom issued. The City Secretary shall keep a record of all petition blanks issued.
(Ordinance 1117 adopted 2/28/13, prop. 20, approved at election of 5/11/13)
The recall petition must be addressed to the Council and must distinctly and specifically state the reason(s) for removal. The petition shall specifically state each reason with such certainty as to give the official to be removed notice of such matters and things with which he is charged. Recall petition blanks issued by the City Secretary shall be in form as follows:
We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Brady, hereby demand the question of removing (Name of Official) from the office of (Name of Office) be submitted to a vote of the registered voters of the City. The charges and specifications upon which this demand for removal is predicated are as follows:
NAME
ADDRESS
DATE
The petition blank may consist of one (1) or more pages for signatures, all of which pages are to be consecutively numbered. The last page of the petition blank shall contain the following oath:
STATE OF TEXAS
§
COUNTY OF MCCULLOCH
§
I, __________, being first duly sworn, on oath depose and say that I am one of the signers of the above petition; and that the statements made therein are true, and that each signature appearing thereto was made, and I solemnly swear that the same is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be.
______________________________
Sworn to and subscribed before me this _____day of __________, _____.
______________________________
Notary Public in and for McCulloch County, Texas
The petition may consist of one (1) or more petition blanks circulated separately, however the reason stated for removal must be the same on each petition blank. Verifications may be made by one (1) or more petitioners and the petition blanks may be filed separately and by different persons. The petition must be filed with the City Secretary within forty-five (45) days of issuance of the petition blanks. Upon filing, the City Secretary shall immediately notify the accused official in writing by registered mail. The City Secretary shall follow the certification procedures as described in Section 9.04.
(Ordinance 1117 adopted 2/28/13, prop. 22, approved at election of 5/11/13)
Within five (5) days after such recall petition has been presented to the Council, the accused official may request a public hearing so that he may answer the charges specified in the recall petition. 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.
If the accused official does not resign, the Council shall order an election within 45 days of the petition signatures being certified, by special election as outlined in section 7.01 or at the earliest City or general election that falls within 45 days.
(Ordinance 1117 adopted 2/28/13, prop. 24, approved at election of 5/11/13)
Ballots used at recall election shall state the question as to whether or not the accused official shall be removed from office followed by “Yes, remove official from office” or “No, do not remove official from office.”
(Ordinance 1117 adopted 2/28/13, prop. 23, approved at election of 5/11/13)
If a majority of the votes cast at a recall election shall be against the recall of the official named on the ballot, he shall continue in office for the remainder of his unexpired term subject to recall as allowed in Section 8.11. If a majority of the votes cast at such an election are for the recall of the official 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 as prescribed in Section 3.08.
In no instance shall any official removed from office by recall election succeed himself nor shall his name appear on a ballot for elective office of the City of Brady within a period of two (2) years following the date of the election at which he was removed from office.
No recall petition shall be filed against any official of the City of Brady within six (6) months after his election nor within six (6) months after an election for such official’s recall.
If the Council refuses to order a recall election, the City Secretary or the County Judge of McCulloch County shall order that such election be held on the earliest lawful date in accordance with State election laws.