Grounds for recall shall include violations of the Code of Ethics
of the State of Rhode Island and the Town of Westerly and of the Westerly
Town Charter.
Any member of the Town Council or School Committee may be removed
from office by recall, provided that recall may not be initiated during
the first four months or the last eight months of the term of the
incumbent.
The procedure to accomplish recall shall be as follows:
1. Initiation of recall.
a. One hundred qualified electors of the Town of Westerly shall file
a declaration of intent to petition for recall with the Town Clerk
and shall name the elected official who those electors desire to be
recalled.
2. Collection of recall petition signatures.
a. Within 45 days of the presentation of said declaration to the Town
Clerk, a written petition demanding the removal of said official shall
be filed with the Town Clerk. Said petition shall include the signatures
of not less than 35% of the number of qualified Town electors who
voted at the most recent general election.
b. Said petition, prior to being circulated for signatures, shall be
filed with the Town Clerk who shall attest to the filing and affix
the seal of the Town.
c. Said petition shall include the name and place of residence of each
signer.
d. The signatures on any recall petition provided for in this section
may be on separate paper, but to each paper there shall be attached
a signed statement of the circulator thereof, who shall state therein
under sworn oath and penalty of perjury, that each signature appended
to such paper was made in the presence of the circulator. All such
papers comprising a recall petition may be bound together or filed
as separate papers at different times, provided, however, that all
such separate papers must be filed within the time limit set herein.
3. Verification of recall petition signatures.
a. The Town Clerk shall, within five days of the filing of said recall
petition, refer said recall petition to the Board of Canvassers, which
shall, within 10 days from the date of receipt of said petition from
the Town Clerk, determine the sufficiency thereof and certify the
results to the Town Clerk.
4. Schedule of recall election.
a. The Town Clerk, upon receiving the certified results of said petition
from the Board of Canvassers, shall schedule a recall election to
be held not less than 50 nor more than 65 days following the date
on which the Board of Canvassers certified the signatures to be sufficient.
b. The Town Clerk shall publish more than 30 days prior to the recall
election, in a newspaper having general circulation in the Town, and
on the Town's publicly accessible website, notification of the
recall election, the name of the official subject to the recall election,
and a true copy of the ballot, which shall be used in said recall
election.
5. Conduct of recall election.
a. The ballot prepared for the recall election shall include the name
and office of the person for whom a petition with sufficient signatures
has been filed and shall contain the question: "Shall (name of person)
be removed from the office of (title of office)? And immediately following
said question there shall be printed upon the ballot "YES" "NO."
b. If two-thirds of the votes cast on the question are in the affirmative,
the person whose removal is affirmed by that vote shall be deemed
to have been removed from office as of the date of certification of
the results by the Board of Canvassers.
The Town Council may, through ordinance, carry out provisions
of this section not inconsistent herewith.
No person who has been recalled from elected office or who has
resigned from office while recall proceedings were pending against
such person shall be permitted to hold any elected office or to be
appointed to any [Town] office or position of employment within two
years after such recall or such resignation.