ARTICLE VI
LEGISLATION
Section 6.1 Prior City Legislation:
All valid by-laws, ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations of the city which are not inconsistent with this Charter and which are in force and effect at the time of the effective date of the Charter shall continue in full force and effect until repealed or amended. If any such ordinance, resolution, rule or regulation provided for the appointment of any officers or any members of any board or commission by the Mayor, such officers or members of any board or commission shall, hereafter be appointed by the Council.
Those provisions of any effective by-law, ordinance, resolution, rule or regulation which are inconsistent with this Charter are hereby repealed.
Section 6.2 Ordinances and Resolutions:
All official action by the Council shall be by ordinance, resolution, motion or order. Action by resolution, motion or order shall be limited to matters required or permitted to be done so by this Charter or by state or federal laws pertaining to the internal affairs or concern of the City Government. In addition to such acts of the Council as may be required by other provisions of the Charter to be by ordinance, every act making an appropriation, creating an indebtedness, authorizing borrowing of money, levying a tax, establishing any rule or regulation for the violation of which a penalty is imposed, or placing any burden upon or limiting the use of private property, shall be by ordinance. Each ordinance shall be identified by a short title and by number and by a code section number, when a codification of ordinances is completed.
Each proposed ordinance shall be introduced in written or printed form. The style of all ordinance shall be: “The Council of the City of Gunnison, Colorado ordains.”
Section 6.3 Procedure of Passage:
The course that an ordinance shall take for passage shall be:
A. Introduction at any regular or special meeting by any member of the Council.
B. Reading in full, unless otherwise provided by this Charter or provided by the Council to be read by title.
C. Passage or rejection on the first reading by a roll call vote of the Council.
D. If passed on first reading, the ordinance shall be published by title only within ten (10) days unless otherwise provided in this Charter.
E. Not later than one hundred (100) days from the date of first reading, introduction a second time at a regular meeting before final passage or rejection by a roll call vote of the Council. An ordinance may be amended before final passage by a roll call vote of the Council.
F. Unless otherwise provided in this Charter, if an ordinance is amended, it shall be published by title only after passage, with a notation that the ordinance has been amended, and shall take effect upon the date of such publication.
G. The Council may, at its discretion, hold a public hearing before final passage of an ordinance where such hearing is not otherwise required.
H. If an ordinance is not amended, it shall take effect upon final passage by a roll call vote of the Council after second reading, or upon such other date as set by council.
I. Any emergency ordinance for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety may be introduced and adopted at any special or regular meeting of the Council, and they shall take effect immediately, provided said emergency ordinances are approved by at least three-fourths of the Council present. Facts showing such urgency and need shall be specifically stated in the measure itself and such ordinances shall be published in full within seven days.
An emergency ordinance shall be in effect for no more than ninety days after passage, and shall not again be passed as an emergency ordinance.
No ordinance making a grant of any special privilege, levying taxes, incurring indebtedness, authorizing borrowing of money, or fixing rates charged by a City-owned utility shall ever be passed as an emergency measure.
J. Any ordinance in the passage of which the required publications were published by posting as set forth in Section 11.14 shall be published in full unless otherwise provided in this Charter, in a newspaper of general circulation within the city, as soon as such newspaper publication is available; but such required newspaper publication of an ordinance, or of any notice of public hearing called in connection with the passage of said ordinance, shall not be a requirement for the effectiveness of any ordinance so passed.
Section 6.4 Recording of Ordinances:
All ordinances shall be recorded by the City Clerk in a book called “The Ordinance Book” and it shall be the duty of the Mayor and City Clerk to authenticate such records by their official signature thereon, but the failure to do so record and authenticate such ordinances shall not invalidate it or suspend its operation.
Section 6.5 Penalties for Violation of Ordinances:
The Council shall provide for the enforcement of its ordinance, where applicable, by fine or imprisonment, or both; but no such fine nor imprisonment shall exceed the fine or imprisonment authorized for municipal ordinance violations as set by statutes of the State of Colorado.
Section 6.6 Enactment of Codes by Reference:
In accordance with statutes now or hereafter in effect, the Council may enact any technical codes, any appropriate Colorado statute, or any detailed technical regulations promulgated or enacted by any municipality, state or federal agency, by reference thereto in an enacting ordinance, and without reading or publishing such codes or statutes in full.
In the event that any such code or statute, after being adopted by reference, is revised or amended by the agency or organization by whom it was promulgated, then any such revision or amended version may be adopted by reference by an ordinance passed in the usual manner without strict compliance with statutory regulations relative to notices and public hearings.
Section 6.7 Severability of Ordinances:
Unless an ordinance shall expressly provide to the contrary, if any portion of an ordinance or the application thereof to any person or circumstances shall be found to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity shall not affect the remaining portions or applications of the ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid portion or application, provided such remaining portions or applications are not determined by the court to be inoperable, and to this end ordinances are declared to be severable. Furthermore, if an existing ordinance is ruled to be unenforceable or void in its entirety, any ordinance which said ordinance succeeded shall be automatically in effect.
Section 6.8 Codification of Ordinances:
As soon as feasible, but not more than three years after the effective date of this Charter, the Council shall direct and complete the codification of all ordinances of the City and shall provide for the publication of subsequent amendments thereto so that such amendments may readily be made a part of such published code and maintained thereafter in current form. Any such codification may originally include provisions not previously contained in ordinances of the City.
Section 6.9 Initiation and Referendum:
An ordinance may be initiated by petition, or a referendum on an enacted ordinance may be had by petition, or the Council may, on its own notion, submit an ordinance to the electorate as hereafter provided.
Section 6.10 Petition Requirements:
An initiation petition shall be signed by qualified electors in a number not less than ten (10) percent of the number of persons who were registered electors of the City as of the date of the last regular City election, and all signatures on said petition shall be obtained within twenty-one (21) days before the date of filing the petition with the City Clerk. Any such petition shall be addressed to the council and may be the aggregate of two or more petition papers identical as to content and simultaneously filed by one person. An initiation petition shall set forth in full the ordinance it proposes to initiate, and no petition shall propose to initiate more than one ordinance.
A referendum petition shall be signed by qualified electors in a number no less than eight (8) percent of the number of persons who were registered electors of the City as of the date of the last regular City election. A referendum petition shall identify the ordinance to have repealed. Each signer of a petition shall sign his name, the date, and his place of residence by street number, or by other customary designation. To each petition paper there shall be attached a sworn affidavit by the circulator thereof stating the number of signers thereof, and that each signature thereon is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be and that it was made in the presence of the affiant. Such petition shall be filed with the City Clerk, who shall within fifteen (15) days canvass the signature thereon. If the petition does not contain a sufficient number of signatures of qualified electors of the City, or any other error or insufficiency shall be found in the petition, the City Clerk shall notify forthwith by registered mail the person filing such petition, and fifteen (15) days from such notification shall be allowed for filing of supplemental or corrected petition papers. When a petition with sufficient signatures is filed within the time allowed by this section, the City Clerk shall present the petition to the Council at its next regular meeting.
Section 6.11 Council Procedure on Initiation and Referendum Petitions:
Upon presentation to the Council of an initiation or referendum petition by the City Clerk, the Council shall, within thirty-one days either:
A. Adopt the ordinance as submitted by initiation petition;
B. Repeal the ordinance, or part thereof, referred to by a referendum petition; or
C. Determine to submit the proposal provided for in the petition to the electors.
Section 6.12 Submission of Initiation and Referendum Ordinances to Electors:
Should the council decide to submit the proposal to the electors, or should they, on their own motion submit an ordinance to the electors, it shall be submitted at the next regular City election held in the City for any other purpose, or at the discretion of the council, at a special election called for that specific purpose. In the case of an initiation petition, if no election is to be held in the City for any other purpose within one hundred-fifty days from the time the petition is presented to the Council, and it does not enact the ordinance, then the Council shall, by resolution, call a special election within sixty days from such date of presentation for the submission of the proposal. The result of all elections held under the provisions of this section shall be determined by a majority vote of the electors voting thereon.
Section 6.13 Miscellaneous Provisions on Initiation and Referendum Petitions:
An ordinance adopted by the electorate may not be amended or repealed for a period of six months after the date of the election at which it was adopted, and an ordinance repealed by the electorate may not be re-enacted for a period of six months after the date of the election at which it was repealed, provided however, that any ordinance may be adopted, amended or appealed at any time by appropriate referendum or initiatory procedure in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Charter, or if submitted to the electorate by the Council on its own motion. If two or more ordinances adopted at the same election shall have conflicting provisions, the provisions in the ordinance receiving the highest number of affirmative votes shall govern.
Section 6.14 Ordinances Excepted:
Anything herein to the contrary notwithstanding, ordinances authorizing the issuance of bonds, levying taxes, the annual appropriation ordinances and those ordering improvements initiated by petition and to be paid for by special assessments shall be excepted from initiative and referendum powers.