MUNICIPAL CHARTER ACT. MUNICIPALITIES. SURRENDER OF CORPORATE POWERS. SECTION 3513. Villages may surrender their corporate powers upon petition to council of at least forty per cent. of the electors thereof, to be determined by the number voting at the last municipal election, and an affirmative vote of a majority of such electors at a special election which shall be provided for by council, and conducted, canvassed, and the result certified and made known as regular municipal elections within the corporation. If the result of the election is in favor of such surrender, the clerk of the village shall certify the result to the secretary of state and the recorder of the county, who shall record it in their respective offices, and thereupon the corporate powers of such village shall cease. (96 v. 21 § 4.) MUNICIPAL CHARTER ACT. SECTION I. Whenever electors of any municipality, equal in number to ten percentum of those who voted at the last regular municipal election, shall file a petition with the board of deputy state supervisors of elections or board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of election, as the case may be, of the county in which such municipality is situated, asking that the question of organizing the municipality under any one of the plans of government provided in this act be submitted to the electors thereof, said board shall at once certify that fact to the council of the municipality and the council shall, within thirty days, provide for submitting such question at a special election to be held not less than sixty nor more than ninety days after the filing of such petition. Any such election shall be conducted in accordance with the general election laws of the state except as otherwise provided in this act and the council of any municipality holding such an election shall appropriate whatever money may be necessary for the proper conduct thereof. (103 v. 767.) How villages may surrender powers. their corporate Section 3515-1. Petition for submission of question of organizing municipality under specific plan. SECTION 2. The proposition to adopt a plan of government provided in this act shall not be submitted to the electors of any municipality less than ninety days before a regular municipal election. If in any municipality, a Petition for of sufficient petition is filed, requiring that the question of submission question of choosing a commission to frame a charter be submitted to choosing comthe electors thereof, the proposition to adopt a plan of government provided in this act shall not be submitted in that municipality as long as the question of choosing such commission or adopting a charter framed thereby is pending therein. In any municipality while the proposition of adopting any one of the three forms of government mission to frame charter. Form of ballot question of organizing under plan. MUNICIPAL CHARTER ACT. herein provided for is pending, then no other proposition herein provided for shall be submitted until said pending proposition is adopted or rejected. (103 v. 767.) SECTION 3. In submitting the question of organizing in submitting under any one of the plans of government provided in this act to the electors of any municipality the board of deputy state supervisors of elections or board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of elections, as the case may be, shall cause to be printed on the ballots the following question, "Shall the (name the plan) plan of government, as provided in chapter ...... section ...... of the General Code of Ohio be adopted? Immediately following such question there shall be printed on the ballots the following propositions in the order here set forth: Mailing copies of plan to electors. "For the adoption of the (... ) plan." ......) plan." When the question is on the adoption of the federal plan of government there shall also be submitted the question "For councilmen-at-large," and "For councilmen-bywards." There shall also be printed on the ballots at any such election the following supplementary proposition: "For the adoption of the recall." "Against the adoption of the recall." Immediately to the left of each of the propositions shall be placed a square in which the electors by making a cross (X) mark may vote for or against any such propositions. At least thirty days prior to any such election the deputy state supervisors of elections or board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of elections, as the case may be, of the county shall mail a copy of the proposed plan of government and the supplementary propositions as specified in this act to each elector of the municipality whose name appears on the poll or registration books of the last regular general election, and each such copy shall contain on the front cover thereof a fac-simile ballot and the date and hours of the election. Any elector may, at least forty days prior to such election file, with said board a written arguments for and ment of not more than three hundred words for or against any proposed plan of government or for or against any other proposition submitted and, upon payment of the cost of printing, said board shall cause the same to be printed and a copy thereof mailed with the copy of the proposed plan to each elector or otherwise distributed to every voter as far as practicable. (103 v. 767.) Filing argu against. Result of adoption. SECTION 4. If, when submitted in any municipality the proposition of adopting a plan of government provided in this act is approved by a majority of those voting thereon, such plan, together with any of the supplementary MUNICIPAL CHARTER ACT. propositions that may have been approved by a majority. of the electors voting thereon, shall become the charter of such municipality. When so adopted, this act shall go into effect immediately, in so far as it applies to the nomination. and election of officers provided for herein and in all other respects it shall go into effect upon the first day of January following the next regular municipal election. All officers of any plan of government superseded by the adop tion of any plan provided in this act, except members of the commission or council, shall continue in office and in the performance of their duties until the commission or council elected hereunder shall have provided by ordinances for the performance of the duties of such officers, whereupon the terms of all such officers shall expire and their offices be deemed abolished. (103 v. 768.) propositions. SECTION 5. In any municipality where a plan of gov- Submission of ernment provided in this act has been adopted any of the supplementary supplementary propositions, not previously adopted, may be independently submitted to the electors at any municipal election in the manner provided for submitting the question of adopting such plan of government. If the proposition to adopt a plan of government provided in this act is rejected by the electors of a municipality, it shall not again be submitted in that municipality within one year thereafter. (103 v. 769.) SECTION 6. Immediately after an election upon the adoption of any plan of government or proposition provided herein the board of deputy state supervisors of elections or board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of elections, as the case may be, of the county in which such election is held shall file with the secretary of state a certificate of the results thereof. (103 v. 769.) ARTICLE II. ELECTION PROVISIONS. Section 3515-6. Board shall file certificate of results of election. Applicable to SECTION 1. Applicable to each plan. The sections of this article shall apply to and be a part of each of the each plan of plans of government provided in this act. (103 v. 769.) government. SECTION 2. Nominations and elections. Regular mu- Nominations nicipal elections shall be held on the first Tuesday after and elections. the first Monday in November in the odd numbered years, and shall be conducted and the results canvassed and announced by the regular election authorities. Candidates to be voted for at the regular municipal elections shall be nominated as provided by law. (103 v. 769.) SECTION 3. Ballots. The ballots used in all elections provided for in this act shall be without party marks or designations. The names of candidates on such ballots shall be printed in rotation as follows: The ballots shall be printed in as many series as there are candidates for the office for which there is the greatest number of candi How ballot shall be prepared; printing in series. Who declared elected. MUNICIPAL CHARTER ACT. dates. The whole number of ballots to be printed shall be divided by the number of series and the quotient so obtained shall be the number of ballots in each series. In printing the first series of ballots the names of candidates for each office shall be arranged in alphabetical order under the title thereof. After printing the first series the first name in each list of candidates for the various offices . shall be placed last in such list and the next series printed, and the process shall be so repeated until each name in the largest list of candidates shall have been printed first an equal number of times. The ballots so printed shall then be combined in tablets, so as to have the fewest possible ballots having the same order of names printed thereon together in the same tablet. The ballots shall in all other respects conform as nearly as may be to the ballots prescribed by the general election laws of the state. (103 v. 769. SECTION 4. Regular election. The candidates at the regular municipal election, equal in number to the places. to be filled in each office, who received the highest number of votes, shall be declared elected. In case it cannot be determined which of two or more candidates shall be declared elected, by reason of the fact that they have received the same number of votes, the election authorities shall determine by lot which of said candidates shall be declared elected. (103 v. 770.) Initiative and referendum applicable to each plan. Removal by recall; procedure. ARTICLE VII. INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL. SECTION I. Adoption. All laws pertaining to the initiative and referendum in municipalities shall apply to and become a part of each plan of government provided for in this act. The provisions of section 2 of this article shall be submitted to the electors of the municipality as prescribed in article I, section 3 hereof, with each and every plan of government, provided herein. Section 2 of this article shall form a part of any such plan of government and go into effect in such municipality only to the extent to which the provisions shall have been adopted as provided in article I, section 3 hereof. (103 v. 784.) SECTION 2. The recall. Any elective officer of any municipality may be removed from office by the qualified voters of such municipality. The procedure to effect such removal shall be as follows: (1). A petition signed by qualified electors equal in number to at least fifteen per cent. of the total votes cast at the last preceding general municipal election, and demanding the election of a successor to the person sought to be removed, shall be filed with the deputy state supervisors of elections or board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of elections, as the case may be, which petition. . MUNICIPAL CHARTER ACT. shall contain a general statement in not more than two hundred words of the grounds upon which the removal is sought. The form, sufficiency and regularity of any such petition shall be determined as provided in the general election laws. (2). If the petition shall be sufficient, and if the person or persons whose removal is sought shall not resign within five days after the sufficiency of the petition has been determined, the council shall thereupon order and fix a day for holding an election to determine the question of his removal, and for the selection of a successor to each officer named in said petition, which election shall be held not less than thirty nor more than forty days from the finding of the sufficiency of the petition. The election authorities. shall cause publication of notice and all arrangements to be made for holding such election, and the same shall be conducted and the result thereof returned and declared in all respects as are the results of general municipal elections. (3). The nomination of candidates to succeed each officer sought to be removed shall be made without the intervention of a primary election by filing with the election. authorities at least twenty days prior to such special election, a petition proposing a person for each such office, signed by electors equal in number to ten per cent. of the total votes cast at the last preceding general municipal election for the head of the ticket. (4). The ballots at such recall election shall conform to the following requirements; with respect to each person whose removal is sought, the question shall be submitted: "Shall (name of person) be removed from the office of (name of office) by recall?" Immediately following each such question, there shall be printed on the ballots, the two propositions in the order set forth: "For the recall of (name of person)". Immediately to the left of the proposition shall be placed a square in which the electors, by making a cross (X) mark, may vote for either of such propositions. Under each of said questions shall be placed the names of candidates to fill the vacancy. The name of the officer whose removal is sought shall not appear on the ballot as a candidate to succeed himself. (5). In any such election, if a majority of the votes cast on the question of removal are affirmative, the person whose removal is sought shall thereupon be deemed removed from office upon the announcement of the official canvass of that election, and the candidate receiving the plurality of the votes cast for candidates for that office shall be declared elected. The successor of any person so removed shall hold office during the unexpired term of his predeces |