lo statuto della città di Chelsea, è stato scritto dai cittadini.
Bene, ma cosa contiene?
Allego qui sotto il testo completo, in inglese.
Importante sottolineare che i cittadini, nel loro statuto hanno previsto l'iniziativa (referendum propositivo), il referendum abrogativo, la revoca degli eletti, l'audizione pubblica. Il quorum per i referendum è stato fissato al 30%. Interessante notare che quando i cittadini creano uno statuto, non inseriscono il referendum consultivo, che è una perdita di soldi e di energie e non vincola gli amministratori a fare quello che i cittadini chiedono.
Sono solo gli amministratori che amano questo strumento, perchè appunto finge di dare un potere ai cittadini, ma invece non da niente.
Interessante l'audizione pubblica che prevede che la giunta si presenti davanti ai cittadini entro 6 settimane in un'assemblea pubblica su un determinato argomento se un gruppo di cittadini lo richiede.
Riporto qui l'articolo che riguarda l'audizione pubblica, perchè è interessante e servirebbe anche nella nostra città (oltre all'iniziativa e al referendum):
Section 8-1. - Free petition.
The city council or the school committee
shall hold a public hearing and act with respect to every petition which is addressed to it, which is signed by one hundred and fifty voters or more, and which seeks the passage of a mea-sure. The hearing shall be held by the city council or the school committee, or, in either case, by a committee or sub-committee thereof, and the action by the city council or the school committee shall be taken not later than six weeks after the petition is filed with the clerk of the city council or the secretary of the school committee, as may be appropriate. Hearings on two or more petitions filed under this section may be held at the same time and place. The clerk of the city council or the secretary of the school committee shall mail notice of the hearing to the ten persons whose names appear first on the petition at least seven days prior to the hearing. Notice, by publication, of all such hearings shall be at public expense. (Amended 8-26-94)
Per chi ha voglia di leggere, ecco l'intero paragrafo sulla partecipazione dei cittadini, come i cittadini stessi di Chelsea hanno voluto.
PART VIII
Citizen Participation Mechanisms.
Section 8-1. -
Free petition. The city council or the school committee shall hold a public hearing and act with respect to every petition which is addressed to it, which is signed by one hundred and fifty voters or more, and which seeks the passage of a mea-sure. The hearing shall be held by the city council or the school committee, or, in either case, by a committee or sub-committee thereof, and the action by the city council or the school committee shall be taken not later than six weeks after the petition is filed with the clerk of the city council or the secretary of the school committee, as may be appropriate. Hearings on two or more petitions filed under this section may be held at the same time and place. The clerk of the city council or the secretary of the school committee shall mail notice of the hearing to the ten persons whose names appear first on the petition at least seven days prior to the hearing. Notice, by publication, of all such hearings shall be at public expense. (Amended 8-26-94)
Section. 8-2. -
Citizen initiative measures. (a) Commencement of proceedings. Initiative procedures shall be com-menced by the filing of an initiative petition with the city clerk. The peti-tion shall be addressed to the city council or the school committee, shall contain a request for passage of a particular measure set forth in the petition and shall be signed by not less than twenty percent of the total number of voters.
Signatures to initiative petitions need not be all on one paper. All such papers pertaining to any one measure shall be fastened together and shall be filed in the office of the city clerk as one instrument, with the endorsement thereon of the names and addresses of the persons designated as filing the same. With each signature to the petition, shall be stated the place of resi-dence of the signer, giving the street and number, if any.
Within ten days of the filing of said petition the registrars of voters shall ascertain by what number of voters the petition is signed, and shall at-tach thereto their certificate showing the result of such examination.
The city clerk shall forthwith transmit the said certificate with the said petition to the city council or to the school committee, as appropriate, and at the same time shall send a copy of said certificate to the persons desig-nated on the petition as filing the same.
When such certificate has been so transmitted, said petition shall be deemed to be valid unless written objections are made with regard to the signatures thereon by a voter within forty-eight hours after such certifica-tion by filing such objections with the city council or the school committee, and a copy thereof with the registrars of voters. Any such objection shall be determined forthwith.
(b) Referral to city solicitor. If the city clerk determines that a suf-ficient number of signers are voters, the city clerk shall transmit a copy of the petition to the city solicitor.
Within fifteen days after receipt by the city solicitor of the petition the city solicitor shall advise the city clerk in writing whether the measure may be proposed by initiative procedures, and whether it may be lawfully passed by the city council or the school committee. If the opinion of the city solicitor is that the measure may not lawfully be passed, the city solicitor shall state the reason or reasons therefor in said reply. The city clerk shall forthwith furnish a copy of the city solicitor�s opinion to the person designated on the petition as filing the same.
(c) Initiative petition; requirements for passage and submission to elec-torate. If any initiative petition is signed by voters equal in number to at least twenty percent of the total number of voters, and in the opinion of the city solicitor, such measure may be lawfully passed by the city council or school committee, the city council or school committee within thirty days af-ter the date of the certificate of the registrars to that effect: (1) may pass said measure without alteration, subject to the referendum vote provided in his charter; or (2) the city council shall call a special election to be held at a date fixed by it not less than sixty days after the date of the certificate herein mentioned, and shall submit the proposed measure without alteration to a vote of the voters at that election; provided, however, that if any city election is otherwise to occur within one hundred twenty days after the date of said certificate, the city council may, at its discretion, omit the calling of a special election and submit the proposed measure to the voters at such approaching election.
The ballots used when voting upon a proposed measure under this section shall state the nature of the measure in terms sufficient to show the substance thereof.
(d) Ballot question. The ballots used when voting upon a proposed measure under this section shall state the nature of the measure in terms sufficient to show the substance thereof by preparation of a fair, concise summary by the city solicitor and approved by the registrars of voters.
The full text of the measure shall be published in a least one newspaper of general circulation in the city at least seven days before the election at which the question shall appear on the ballot.
The ballot used when voting upon a proposed measure under this section shall contain the question in substantially the following form:
Shall the following measure which was proposed by an initiative petition take effect?
(Text of measure summary)
YES ________ NO ________
If a majority of the votes cast on the question is in the affirmative the measure shall be deemed to be effective forthwith, unless a later date is specified in the measure. (Amended 8-26-94)
Section 8-3. -
Citizen referendum procedures.
If within ten days after the final passage of any measure a petition signed by voters equal in number to at least five percent of the total number of voters, and addressed to the city council or to the school committee, as the case may be, protesting against such measure or any part thereof taking effect, is filed with the city clerk, the same shall thereupon and thereby be suspended from taking effect; and the city council or the school committee, as the case may be, shall immediately reconsider such measure or part thereof; and if such measure or part thereof is not entirely rescinded, the city coun-cil shall submit the same, by the method herein provided, to a vote of the voters either at the next regular city election, or at a special election which may, in its discretion, be called for the purpose and such measure or part thereof shall forthwith become null and void unless a majority of the voters voting on the same at such election vote in favor thereof. The peti-tion described in this section shall be termed a referendum petition and para-graph (a) of section 8-2 shall apply to the procedure in respect thereto, ex-cept that the words �measure or part thereof protested against� shall for this purpose be understood to replace �measure� in said section whenever it may oc-cur, and �referendum� shall be understood to replace the word �initiative� in said section. (Amended 8-26-94)
Section 8-4. - Required voter participation.
For any measure to be effective under initiative or referendum procedures at least thirty percent of the voters shall vote at an election upon which an initiative or referendum question is submitted to the voters. (Amended 8-26-94)
Section 8-5. - Measures not subject to initiative and referendum.
Measures which include the following subject matter shall not be subject to initiative and referendum procedures: (a) revenue loan orders; (b) appropriations for, the payment of debt or debt service; (c) internal operational procedures of the city council and the school committee; (d) emergency measures; (e) the city budget or any appropriation contained therein; (f) the school committee budget or any appropriation contained therein; (g) the capi-tal improvements program or any item contained therein; (h) appropriation of funds to implement a collective bargaining agreement; (i) procedures relating to election, appointment, removal, discharge or any other personnel action; and (j) proceedings providing for the submission or referral of a measure to the voters at an election. (Amended 8-26-94)
Section 8-6. - Submission of proposed measure to voters.
The city council may, of its own motion, and shall, upon request of the school committee if a measure originates with that committee and pertains to the affairs under its administration, submit to a vote of the voters for adop-tion or rejection at a general or special city election any proposed measure, or a proposition for the repeal or amendment of any measure, in the same manner and with the same force and effect as are hereby provided for submission on petition. (Amended 8-26-94)
Section 8-7. - Measures with conflicting provisions.
If two or more proposed measures passed at the same election contain con-flicting provisions, only the one receiving the greater number of affirmative votes shall take effect. (Amended 8-26-94)
Section 8-8. -
Recall of elected officials. (a) Application. Any person who holds an elected city office with more than six months remaining of the term of office at the time of the filing of the affidavit may be recalled from the office by the voters in the manner pro-vided in this section. No recall petition may be filed against an elected of-ficial within six months after taking office.
(b) Recall petitions. A recall affidavit signed by at least three hun-dred for any official elected at large and by at least one hundred for any of-ficer elected by district may be filed with the city clerk containing the name of the office whose recall is sought and a statement of the grounds for re-call. The board of registrars of voters shall certify such petitions with re-gard to the sufficiency and validity of the signatures of voters and within five working days following such filing the city clerk shall deliver to the ten persons first named on such petitions, petition blanks demanding said re-call, printed forms of which the city clerk shall keep available. The blanks may be completed by printing or typewriting; they shall be addressed to the city council; they shall contain the names of the ten persons to whom they are issued and the grounds for the recall as stated in the affidavit; they shall be dated and signed by the city clerk. A copy of the petition shall be en-tered into the records kept in the office of the city clerk.
The recall petitions shall be returned to the office of the city clerk within twenty days following the date they are issued, signed by at least twenty percent of the total number of persons who voted at the most recent municipal election for officials elected at large, and for officials elected by district, signed by at least twenty percent of the total number of persons who voted at the most recent municipal election from the district the official sought to be recalled represents.
The city clerk shall forthwith submit the petition to the registrars of voters, and the registrars shall within five working days certify thereon the names of the registered voters of the city, or from the district represented by the official sought to be recalled.
(c) Recall election. If the petition shall be found and certified by the city clerk to be sufficient, the city clerk shall submit the same with such certificate to the city council within five working days, and the city council shall forthwith give written notice of the receipt of the certificate to the official sought to be recalled, and shall, if the official does not resign within five days thereafter, order an election to be held on a date fixed by them not less than sixty days after the date of the city clerk�s certificate, provided however, that if any city election is otherwise to occur within one hundred and twenty days after the date of said certificate, the city council may, at its discretion, omit the calling of a special election and submit the proposed recall to the voters at such approaching election. The recall elec-tion for any official elected by district shall only be held in the district that the official represents.
If a vacancy occurs in said office after a recall election has been or-dered, the election shall not proceed as provided in this section.
(d) Office holder. The incumbent shall continue to perform the duties of the office until the recall election. If said incumbent is not recalled, the incumbent shall continue in office for the remainder of the unexpired term subject to recall as before. If recalled, the official shall be deemed re-moved and the office vacant. The vacancy created thereby shall be filled in accordance with this charter. Any person appointed to fill the vacancy caused by such recall shall hold office for the unexpired term of the official re-called.
(e) Ballot question. The form of the question to be voted upon shall be substantially as follows:
Shall - here insert the name and title of the elected official whose recall is sought - be recalled?� If a majority of the votes cast upon the question of call is in the affirmative, such elected official shall be recalled.
No recall election shall be effective unless at least forty percent of those entitled to vote shall have voted.
(f) Repeat of recall. In the case of an official subjected to a recall election and not recalled thereby. no recall petition shall be filed against such an official until at least sixty days after the election at which the official�s recall was submitted to the voters of the city.
(g) Office holder recalled. No person recalled from office or who has resigned from office while recall proceedings were pending against such per-son, shall be appointed to any office or employment under the city within two years after such recall or resignation. (Amended 8-26-94)
