Chap. 69.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to provide
a new charter for the city of Portsmouth, approved March 10, 1908, as
amended by an act approved March 12, 1912, by adding a new chapter
thereto, to be known as chapter 10, relating to the initiative, referendum
and recall. [H B 94]

Approved February 23, 1918.

1. Be it enacted by the gencral assembly of Virginia, That an
act entitled an act to provide a new charter for the city of Ports-
mouth, approved March tenth, nineteen hundred and eight, as
amended by an act approved March twelfth, nineteen hundred and
twelve, be amended and re-enacted so as to add to said charter a
chapter to be known as chapter ten, as follows:
Chapter 10, section 1. The initiative-—Anvy proposed ordinance
or the question of the repeal of an existing ordinance, may be sub-
mitted to the council of said city by petition signed by the qualified
electors of the city equal in number to the percentage hereinafter re-
quired. The signatures, verification and authentication upon such
petition, presentation to the council, presumption of sufficiency and
regularity, the summary review by the judge of the corporation
court shall be as follows:

“The petition shall be presented by filng the same with the city
clerk,” and shall be substantially in the following form:

Form of petition:

To the council of the city of Portsmouth.

We, the undersigned, qualified electors of this city. respect full
petition vour honorable body to cause to be submitted to a vote, the
following question:

(Signature of elector.) (Residence by street and number. )

The execution of the petition by an elector shall be acknowledged
by him, or it may be proved by the oath of a witness who shall
swear that he knows the elector and that the petition was signed by
the elector in the presence of the witness. The petition may be in
the form of separate sheets, each sheet containing at the top thereof
the petition as above set forth, and when bound together and offered
for filing, shall be deemed to constitute one petition.

Summary proceedings to review sufficiency of petition.—Such a
petition, which complies with the requirements of this article, both
as to form and number of signers and manner of execution shall be
accepted as prima facie sufficient. The circuit or hustings court of
the city shall have summary jurisdiction upon complaint of an
elector to determine the sufficiency of the petition and the genuine-
ness of the signatures thereon, and the qualifications of the electors
signing the same. and may make such order in the premises as
justice may require: but such summary proceedings shall be insti-
tuted within ten days after presentation of the petition, and the bur-
den of proof shall be on the complainant.

No individual signature upon such petition shall be valid unless
the same shall have been placed thereon within three months prior
to the presentation of such petition to the council. The petition
presenting the proposed ordinance, or Proposed repeal, shall con-
tain a statement. in not more than two hundred words, giving the
petitioners’ reasons for the adoption of the repeal of such ordinances ;
and if it be signed by electors equal in number to at least fifteen per
centum of electors voting for governor in the last preceding guber-
natorial election and contains a request that the said ordinance be
submitted to a vote of the people. the council shall either (a) pass
such proposed ordinance without alteration, or repeal such existing
ordinance within ten days after determining the sufficiency of the
petition, or (b) within said ten days call a special election (unless a
general election 1s to be held at least thirty and within ninety days
thereafter, and at such special or succeeding general election such
proposed ordinance, or the repeal of such existing ordinance, shall
be submitted without alteration to the vote of the electors of the
city. The council may, in its discretion, propose an ordinance for
substitution, or may submit the same to the electors at the same
election. Ifa majority of the qualified electors voting on a proposed
ordinance shall vote in favor thereof, it shall thereupon become a
valid and binding ordinance of the city, and the same shall not be re-
pealed or amended, except by a vote of the electors within two years
thereafter. If the majority of the qualified electors voting on the
repeal of an existing ordinance shall vote in favor of its repeal, it
shall thereupon become of no force and effect.

When there are two or more ordinances proposed to accomplish
the same purpose, the council shall cause a statement to this effect
to be printed upon the ballot, and the ballot shall be so arranged
that the voter may (first) vote for or against the adoption of any
and all ordinances for the same purpose, and (second) may express
n preference for any one of such ordinances. If a majority of the
voters on the first question is affirmative, then the ordinance receiv-
ing the highest number of votes shall become law, and the others
shall fail of passage. In case two or more ordinances of the same
tenor are tied for the highest vote, they shall be re-submitted at the
next general municipal election.

The council may submit the repeal or modification of any ordi-
nance adopted hereunder, to be voted upon at any general election
succeeding its adoption.

2, The referendum.—No ordinance passed by the council, un-
less (a) otherwise required by the general laws of the State, or (b)
an ordinance immediately necessary for the preservation of the pub-
lic morals, health or safety, and which contains a statement of such
immediate necessity and is passed by at least a three-fourths vote of
the council, shall go into effect until thirty days after its final pas-
sage. If at any time during said thirty days a petition signed by
electors equal in number to at least twenty per centum of the electors
voting for governor at the last preceding gubernatorial election, pro-
testing against the enactment of such ordinance and requesting its
repeal, or requesting its adoption in a proposed amended form, be
presented to the council, such ordinance shall thereupon be suspended
from going into effect, and it shall be the duty of the council to re-
consider such ordinance. If upon reconsideration thereof, said ordi-
nance is not entirely repealed, if so requested, or adopted in the
amended form, as proposed, the council shall submit the question of
the repeal, or the adoption of the ordinance in its proposed amended
form, in the manner provided by (a) of section one of this act; if
the repeal of such ordinance was requested, such ordinance shall not
go into effect unless a majority of the electors voting thereon at such
lection shall vote against its repeal; if the amendment of said ordi-
nance was proposed, the ordinance shall become effective in its pro-
posed amended form if such majority vote is cast in favor thereof,
but 1f not such ordinance shall become effective inthe form as
enacted by the council.

No resolution of the council appropriating money other than for
the regular payrolls, or incurring or providing for the incurring
of any expense or disposing of any property or rights of the city,
shall become effective until thirty days after its adoption; and its
operation shall be suspended, and it shall be reconsidered and sub-
mitted to the electors, in the same manner as in this section pro-
vided with respect to an ordinance.

Petitions hereunder shall conform substantially to the require-
ments of article one hereof as to signatures, verification and authen-
tication, and the presentation, presumption of sufficiency, and sum-
mary review thereof, shall be as provided in said article.

3. Distribution of ordinances among electors.—Whenever an
ordinance is required under sections .......... OF ........ of this
act to be submitted for adoption, modification or repeal, to the elec-
tors of the city at any election, the council shall cause the ordinance
to be printed, and it shall be the duty of the city clerk to enclose a
printed copy thereof in an envelope with a sample ballot, and mail
the same to each qualified voter (5) five days prior to the election.
The failure on the part of any voter to receive or to be sent such
copy and ballot shall not atfect the validity of the election. The
person filing such petition shall have the mght to present to the
city clerk at any time twenty-five days prior to said election, printed
copies of an argument favoring such ordinances, and the members
of the council shall have the right to present, or permit to be pre-
sented to the city clerk, within the same limit of time, an argument
opposing such ordinance. Neither of such arguments shall exceed
two thousand words in length and shall be printed in such a form
suitable for mailing, as the city council shall prescribe. The clerk
shall enclose one copy of such arguments with the sample ballot and
copy of the ordinance mailed to each voter; provided that he is fur-
nished with printed copies of such argument equal in number of five
per centum in excess of the total number of qualified electors. Noth-
ing in this section shall constitute authority for the council to ex.
pend any money belonging to the city for the formulation or printing
of any argument. Any number of proposed ordinances under the
initiative or referendum may be voted upon at the same election.

4. The recall of elective officers—Any officer elected exclusively
by the votes of the electors of the city may be removed from offic

‘at any time after one year from the beginning of his term of offic
‘by the electors qualified to vote for a successor for such incumbent
The procedure to effect such removal shall be as herein provided :

(1) A petition signed by qualified electors of the city equal 1
number to at least fifteen per centum of the electors voting for gov
ernor at the last gubernatorial election, and demanding the electio
of a successor of the officer sought to be removed, shall be filed wit
the clerk of the court of hustings, which petition shall contain a
general statement of the grounds upon which the election of a suc-
cessor is sought. Such petition may be filed at any time after one
year has elapsed since the beginning of the term of the official sought
to be removed. Each signer shall add to his signature his place of
residence, giving street and number, if any. Such petition may be in
the form of separate papers, but each separate paper to which signa-
tures are appended shall contain at the top thereof the original peti-
tion or duplicate statement thereof, and when bound together and
offered for filing, such separate papers shall be deemed to constitute
one petition with respect to the election of the successor of the officer
or officers named therein. One of the signers of such petition shall
make oath before a proper official that the statements made therein
are true, as he believes, and upon such separate paper, the circulator
of the petition to which signatures are appended shall make oath
that each signature to such paper is the genuine signature of the
person whose name it purports to be, and that it was signed in his
presence.

(2) If it appears that the petition is signed by the requisite
percentage of electors, the same shall be accepted as prima facie regu-
lar and sufficient, but it shall be subject to summary review in the
same manner as provided in section ........ of this act.

(3) If the petition shall be sufficient, and if the officer or officers
whose removal is sought shall not resign within five days after the
sufficiency of the petition has been determined by the judge of the
court of hustings, the judge thereof shall thereupon order and fix
a day for holding an election 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 presentation of the
petition, or from the making of any court order thereon. The judge
of the court of hustings 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 in other special elections so far as possible.

(4) A nomination of a candidate to succeed each officer sought
to be removed shall be made without the intervention of a primary
election, by filing with the clerk of the court of hustings at least ten
days prior to such special election, a petition proposing a person for
such office, signed by the electors equal in number to five per centum
of the entire vote cast in the city for all candidates for governor at
the last gubernatorial election. .

(5) The ballots at such election shall conform to the following
requirements: With respect to each officer whose removal is sought
the question shall be submitted : Shall (name of officer) be removec
from the office (name of office) by recall? Under the same questior
may be placed, at the request of the elector, whose signature appear:
first on the petition, a statement, not over two hundred words ir
length, of the grounds upon which the removal is sought. Follow
ing such statement the incumbent officer may cause to be placed :
statement not over two hundred words in length of reasons why he
should not be removed froin office. Beneath the aforesaid statements
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.

(6) In any such election, if a majority of the votes cast on the
question of removal be affirmative, the candidate receiving the high-
est number of the votes cast shall be declared elected, and if more
than one councilman is removed at such election the candidates re-
ceiving the highest number of votes, equal in number to the number
of councilmen removed, shall be declared elected. The officer whose
removal is sought shall thereupon be deemed removed from office
upon the announcement of the official canvass of the election. The
successor of any officer so removed shall hold office during the un-
expired term of his predecessor. In case the person or persons re-
ceiving the highest number of votes shall fail to qualify within ten
days after receiving notification of his election, the office shall be
deemed vacant. The question of the removal of any officer shall not
be submitted to the electors a second time during the same term of
office, until after the expiration of one year from the determination
of the first application for his removal. The method of removal
herein provided is cumulative and additional to such other methods
as may be provided by law. All frauds and irregularities, or at-
tempts to commit same, in initiative, referendum and recall elections
shall be punished in the manner and to the extent provided for
similar offenses under the general election laws of the State, and all
such initiative, referendum and recall elections shall be conducted
as far as practicable under the laws governing general] elections.