§ 1. Procedure generally.

(a)

The mayor or any other member of the city council may be removed from office in the following manner:

Any qualified voter of the city may make and file with the city secretary an affidavit containing the name of the mayor or at-large member of the city council whose removal is sought. Any qualified voter of the single member district in which that qualified voter resides may make and file with the city secretary an affidavit containing the name of the voter's respective single member district council member whose removal is sought. The city secretary shall thereupon deliver to the voter making such affidavit copies of petition blanks for demanding such removal, printed forms of which the city secretary shall keep on hand. Such blanks shall be issued by the city secretary with the city secretary's signature thereto attached, and they shall be dated and addressed to the city council, indicate the person to whom issued, and state the name of the member whose removal is sought. A copy of the petition shall be recorded in a record book for that purpose to be kept in the office of the city secretary. A recall petition to be effective must be returned and filed with the city secretary within forty-five (45) days after the filing of the affidavit about a council member in a single member district or within sixty (60) days after the filing of the affidavit about a council member in an at-large district, and must bear the signatures of qualified voters of the district equal in number to at least 10 percent (10%) of those who were qualified voters for the person sought to be removed on the date of the last regular municipal election.

(b)

Signatures to a recall petition need not all be appended to one paper, but to each such petition paper there shall be attached an affidavit of the circulator thereof, stating that each signature thereto was made in the petitioner's presence and is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be. Each signer of a recall petition shall sign the signer's name in ink or indelible pencil and shall place after the signer's name the date when the signer's signature was made and the signer's residence by street and number, or other description to identify the place. Recall petition papers provided by the city secretary shall be in a form which complies with the Texas Election Code.

(c)

All papers and affidavits comprising a recall petition shall be assembled and filed with the city secretary as one instrument. Within thirty (30) days of the date of filing a recall petition the city secretary shall determine the sufficiency thereof and attach thereto a certificate showing the result of the city secretary's examination. If the city secretary shall certify that the petition is insufficient, the city secretary shall set forth in the certificate the particulars in which it is defective and shall at once notify the affiant of the findings.

(d)

Upon finding of the insufficiency of a recall petition, the affiant shall not have the ability to file further affidavits for a recall election for the same purpose through the duration of the mayor or council member's term in office.

(e)

If a recall petition, or amended petition shall be certified by the city secretary to be sufficient the city secretary shall at once submit it to the city council with the city secretary's certificate to that effect and shall notify the member whose removal is sought of such action. If the member whose removal is sought does not resign within five days of such notice the city council shall thereupon order and fix the date for holding a recall election. Any such election shall not be held less than sixty days after the petition has been submitted to the city council, and it may be held at the same time as any other general or special election within such period; but, if no election is held within such period, the city council shall call a special recall election to be held on the next uniform election date.

(f)

The question of recalling any number of members of said city council may be submitted at the same election, but as to each member whose removal is sought a separate petition shall be filed and there shall be an entirely separate ballot. Candidates to succeed any members of the city council whose removal is sought shall be placed in nomination by petition signed, filed and verified as provided for nominating petitions for a regular municipal election; except that each petition paper shall specify that the candidate named therein is a candidate to succeed the particular member whose removal is sought.

(g)

The ballots used in a recall election shall submit the two following propositions in the order indicated:

"For the recall of (name of mayor or council member);"

"Against the recall of (name of mayor or council member);"

The voter shall mark the box for or against the council member being named for recall. Under the propositions shall appear the word "candidates" and the direction. "Vote for one," and beneath this the names of the candidates nominated as hereinabove provided. The council member whose recall is sought shall not have the council member's name printed on the ballot as a candidate. Except that the space left for the names and dates shall be filled by the correct names and date, the ballots used in a recall election shall be in form substantially as follows:

RECALL ELECTION
City of Irving

      (Month and day of Month)       2___

_____
_____
_____

For the recall of _____
Against the recall of _____

CANDIDATES
Vote for one

_____
_____

Except as provided for in this section, ballots used in recall elections shall comply with the provisions of this Charter regarding ballots for a regular municipal election.

(h)

If a majority of the votes cast on the question of recalling the mayor or a city council member be against recall, the council member shall continue in office for the remainder of the council member's unexpired term, and is not subject to recall for the remainder of the term in which the petition was filed. If a majority of such votes be for the recall of the council member on the ballot, the council member shall, regardless of any defect in the recall petition, be deemed removed from office. When the mayor or a council member is removed from office by recall, the candidate to succeed such officer who receives the highest vote shall be declared elected to fill the unexpired term.

(i)

If a mayor or council member in regard to whom sufficient recall petition is submitted to the city council shall resign within five days thereof, the place thus made vacant on the city council shall be filled by a special election.

(j)

No recall shall be filed against the mayor or council member within six (6) months after taking office of the most recent term. No recall petition may be filed within 270 days of the end of the term of a mayor or council member.

(Ord. No. 889; Ord. No. 7196, Amd. 6, 1-22-98; Ord. No. 8575, Amd. 9, 11-8-05; Ord. No. 2013-9464, Amds. 2, 6, 18, 5-22-13)