Any member of the council may be removed from office by recall. A petition stating the general grounds on which removal is sought shall be signed by qualified electors equal in number to at least fifty-one (51) per cent of those electors who voted at the last general municipal election or by two hundred fifty (250) qualified electors, whichever is the greater, and shall be filed by any qualified elector of the city with the city secretary, provided, however, that separate petitions shall be circulated with respect to each member of the council whose removal is sought.
The signatures to recall petitions need not all be appended to one petition. The petitions may be duplicated and assembled, but to each separate petition or duplicate there shall be attached an affidavit of the circulator, and such petition or duplicate shall be invalid without such affidavit. Each signer of any petition paper shall sign his name in ink or indelible pencil, and after his signature, show the place of residence by street and number or other description sufficient to identify the place. The affidavit attached to each petition or duplicate shall be as follows:
"State of Texas
County of Ward
_______, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he personally circulated the foregoing paper, that all the signatures affixed thereto were made in his presence, and that he believes them to be the genuine signatures of the persons whose names they purport to be.
S/_________________________________
(Signature of Circulator)
SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO before me this the _________ day of ___________ (month), ____ (year).
S/_________________________________
NOTARY PUBLIC, Ward County, Texas.”
(Ordinance 1310 adopted 5/16/2023)
All petition papers comprising a recall petition shall be assembled and filed with the city secretary as one instrument. Within ten (10) days after filing, the city secretary shall determine whether each paper of the petition is properly attested and whether the petition is signed by a sufficient number of qualified electors. Upon completing his examination, the city secretary shall certify the result thereof to the council. If he should certify that the petition is insufficient, he shall set forth in his certificate the particulars in which it is defective; provided, however, that except as to the particulars certified to be defective, the petition shall be deemed to be valid in all other respects.
A recall petition may be amended at any time within twenty (20) days after certification of insufficiency by the city secretary by filing a supplementary petition on additional papers signed and filed as provided in case of an original petition. The city secretary shall within ten (10) days after such supplement is filed, examine the supplementary petition, and, if his certificate shall show the petition still to be insufficient, he shall file it in his office and notify the person filing, and no further action shall be had on such insufficient petition. The finding of the insufficiency of a petition shall not prevent the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.
If a recall petition, or amended petition be certified by the city secretary as sufficient, he shall at once submit it to the council and notify the member of the council whose removal is sought of such action. The council shall order a recall election which shall be held not less than thirty (30) nor more than forty (40) days after the petition has been presented to the council, and at the same time as any other special or general election held within such period. If no such election is to be held, the council shall call a special election. Should the member of the council whose removal is sought resign prior to said recall election, then no election shall be held.
Ballots used in recall elections shall read as to each member of the council whose removal is sought as follows: “SHALL (name of person) BE REMOVED FROM THE CITY COUNCIL BY RECALL?” Below such question there shall be printed the following as to each member:
“For the recall of (name of person).”
“Against the recall of (name of person).”
If a majority of the votes cast be against recall of a member, he shall continue in office for the remainder of his term, but subject to recall as before. If a majority of such votes be for the recall of a member he shall, regardless of any technical defect in the recall petition, be deemed removed from office and the vacancy filled as provided in this charter.
No recall petition shall be filed against a member of the council within three (3) months after he takes office, nor, in respect to a member subjected to a recall election and not removed thereby until at least six (6) months after such election.
The electors shall have power to initiate any ordinance, except an ordinance appropriating money, levying a tax, granting a franchise, establishing salaries of city employees or city officials, or fixing public utility rates, and to adopt or reject the same at the polls. Any initiated ordinance may be submitted to the council by a petition signed by qualified electors of the city equal in number to at least twenty-five (25) per cent of the number of votes cast at the time of the last general municipal election, or by two-hundred-fifty (250) qualified electors, whichever is the greater.
The electors shall have power to approve or reject at the polls any ordinance passed by the council save one appropriating money, authorizing sale of bonds, levying a tax, granting a franchise, establishing salaries of city employees or city officials, fixing public utility rates, or an ordinance submitted by the council of its own initiative to a vote of the electors. Ordinances submitted to the council by initiative petition and passed by the council shall be subject to the referendum in the same manner as other ordinances. Within forty (40) days after the enactment by the council of any ordinance which is subject to a referendum, a petition signed by qualified electors of the city equal in number to at least twenty-five (25) per cent of the number of votes cast at the last preceding general municipal election may be filed with the city secretary requesting that any such ordinance be either repealed or submitted to a vote of the electors.
All petition papers circulated for the purpose of an initiative or referendum shall be uniform in size and style. 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 paper there shall be attached a sworn statement of the circulator, as prescribed in section two [7.2], that he personally circulated the foregoing paper, that all the signatures appended thereto were made in his presence, and that he believes them to be the genuine signatures of the persons whose names they purport to be. Each signer of any such petition paper shall sign his name and his place of residence by street and number or other description sufficient to identify the place.
All petition papers comprising a petition shall be assembled and filed with the city secretary as one instrument. Within ten (10) 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 electors, and shall hold any petition paper entirely invalid which does not have attached thereto the sworn statement signed by the circulator thereof. The city secretary shall certify the result of his examination 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 person filing same of his findings.
An initiative or referendum petition may be amended at any time within twenty (20) days after the notification of insufficiency has been sent by the city secretary, by filing a supplementary petition on additional papers signed and filed as provided in case of an original petition. The city secretary shall, within ten (10) days after such an amendment is filed, examine the amended petition and if the petition be still insufficient, he shall file his certificate to that effect in his office and notify the person filing of his findings, and no further action shall be had on such petition. The findings of the insufficiency of a petition shall not prevent the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.
Whenever the council receives a petition from the city secretary, it shall be immediately considered. A proposed initiative ordinance shall be read and provision shall be made for a public hearing. The council shall take final action on the ordinance not later than sixty (60) days after the date on which such ordinance was submitted to the council by the city secretary. A referred ordinance shall be reconsidered, and the council shall, within thirty (30) days, vote upon the question, “Shall the ordinance be repealed?”.
If the council shall fail to pass an ordinance proposed by initiative petition, or shall pass it in a 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 electors at a special or regular municipal election not less than thirty (30) nor more than sixty (60) days from the date the council takes its final vote thereon.
Ordinances submitted to a vote of the electors in accordance with the initiative and referendum provisions of this charter shall be submitted by ballot title which contains a clear, concise statement, without argument, of the substance of such ordinance. The ballot used 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.
If a majority of the electors 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 electors voting thereon shall thereupon be deemed repealed. If conflicting ordinances are approved by the electors at the same election, 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 electors shall be published and may be amended or repealed by the council, as in the case of other ordinances; provided, however, that no ordinance adopted at the polls under the initiative or referendum shall be amended or repealed by the council within six (6) months of adoption.
Should the city council fail or refuse to order any of the elections as provided for in this article, when all the requirements for such election have been complied with by the petitioning electors in conformity with this article of the charter, then it shall be the duty of the judge of the district court of Ward County, Texas, upon proper application being made therefor, to order such elections and to enforce the carrying into effect of the provisions of this article of the charter.