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I CHAPTER 5 (Draft Replacement Option 6/5/2003) 2 3 INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL 4 5 Section 5.01. General Voter Authority. The people of Mounds View have the right, in 6 accordance with this Charter, to propose ordinances [initiative] and to require that any 7 ordinance be referred to the voters, except those that appropriate money or levy taxes 8 [referendum]. The voters also have the right to remove elected public officials [recall]. The 9 term voter(s), as used in Chapter 5, shall refer only to qualified and registered voters who 10 reside in the City of Mounds View. 11 12 Section 5.02. Petitions. A petition provided for under this chapter must be sponsored 13 by a committee of five voters of the City whose names and addresses appear on the petition. 14 A petition consists of one or more pages with each separately circulated page containing at 15 its head the information specified in sections 5.05, 5.07 or 5.08 which apply, respectively, to 16 initiative, referendum and recall. The committee may obtain a sample petition from the city 17 Clerk-Administrator. Each signer of a petition must be a voter of the City and must sign and 18 print their name and give their street address. Each separate page of the petition must have 19 appended to it a certificate by the circulator, verified by oath. The certificate shall affirm that 20 each signature was made in the circulator's presence and that the circulator believes them to 21 be the genuine signature of the voter whose name it purports to be and that each signer was 22 presented with the full petition. All petition circulators must be voters of the City. Any voter 23 whose name appears on a petition may withdraw their name by filing a statement in writing 24 with the Clerk-Administrator before the Clerk-Administrator advises the Council of the 25 sufficiency of the petition. 26 27 Section 5.03. Determination of Petition Sufficiency. The committee must file the 28 completed petition in the office of the Clerk-Administrator. For a petition to be sufficient, the 29 required number of signatures shall be a percentage of the number of ballots cast for 30 President in the most recent Presidential election. Petitions for Initiative and Referendum 31 require at least fifteen percent, and petitions for Recall, at least twenty-five percent. 32 Immediately upon receipt of the petition,the Clerk-Administrator shall determine its sufficiency 33 and report to the Council within ten working days. The Council shall declare the sufficiency 34 of the petition by resolution. 35 36 Section 5.04. Disposition of Insufficient or Irregular Petition. If the Council determines 37 that the sufficiency of a petition cannot be declared, it shall be determined to be insufficient 38 or irregular. The Clerk-Administrator shall deliver a copy of the petition,together with a written 39 statement of its defects, to the sponsoring committee. The committee shall have thirty 40 calender days in which to file additional signature papers and/or to correct the petition in all 41 other particulars, except that, in the case of a petition for recall,the committee may not change 42 the statement of the grounds on which the recall is sought. Within ten working days of receipt 43 of the corrected petition, the Clerk-Administrator must report to the Council on the sufficiency 44 of the corrections. If the Council finds that the petition is still insufficient or irregular, this shall 45 be considered the Final Finding and the Clerk-Administrator shall file the petition as noted and 46 notify the sponsoring committee that no further action will be taken. The final finding that the 47 petition is insufficient or irregular shall not prejudice the filing of a new petition for the same 48 purpose, nor shall it prevent the Council from referring the subject matter of the petition to the 49 voters at the next regular or special election.