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ARTICLE I. BASIC PROVISIONS
101. Title.
The people of the City of Providence hereby establish this home rule Charter for the better conduct of their affairs and to secure for themselves the benefits and rights of self-government guaranteed by the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island. This Charter shall be cited as the Providence Home Rule Charter of 1980.102. Incorporation.
The inhabitants of the City of Providence shall be a body politic and corporate under the name of the City of Providence and shall have, exercise and enjoy all the rights, immunities, powers, privileges and franchises and shall be subject to all the duties and obligations of a municipal corporation under the Constitution and laws of the State of Rhode Island and of the United States of America.
103. General corporate powers.
The city shall have all powers of local self-government and home rule and all powers possible for a city to have under the Constitution and the laws of the state, including the power and authority to act in all local and municipal matters and to adopt local laws and ordinances relating to its property, affairs and government.
104. Exercise of powers.
All powers of the city shall be exercised in the manner prescribed by this Charter or, if not so prescribed, then in such manner as shall be provided by ordinance or resolution of the city council.
105. Form of government.
The municipal government established by this Charter shall be known as the mayor-council form of government. All powers of the city shall be vested in a chief executive to be known as the mayor and a legislative body to be known as the city council.
ARTICLE II. ELECTIONS
201. Elected officials.
The elected officials of the city shall consist of a mayor, who shall be elected at-large by the qualified voters of the City of Providence, and a city council which shall consist of fifteen (15) members, one elected from each of the fifteen (15) wards into which the city shall be divided pursuant to section 204 of this article.
202. Date of election and terms of office.
The mayor and the members of the city council shall each be elected for a term of four (4) years at a general city election to be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, A.D. 1982, and each fourth year thereafter. Said elections shall be conducted pursuant to applicable provisions of state election law, and the provisions of any special acts relating to the city. The term of office of the mayor and the terms of office of the members of the city council shall begin on the first Monday in January next following their election, and each person shall hold office until his or her successor is elected and qualified; provided, however, that no such office becomes vacant before the end of the term as a result of a recall pursuant to section 208 of this article, or from other causes, pursuant to section 206 of this article.
203. Board of canvassers.
There shall be a board of canvassers of three (3) qualified electors of the city, not more than two (2) of whom shall belong to the same political party.
(a) Appointment. Upon the expiration of the terms of each of the members of the board who are in office on the effective date of this Charter, the city council shall elect a member of said board to succeed the member whose term is expiring, to serve for a term of six (6) years. All terms of members of the board shall commence on the first Monday in March, next following their election. The mayor shall nominate the members of the board from lists of party voters submitted by the respective chairmen of the city political committees. Each such list shall contain the names of five (5) times the number of persons to be appointed. If the city council shall refuse to approve the nomination of any person to the board, the mayor shall submit another person named on one of the lists, and so on until a person shall be appointed; provided, however, if the chairman of the city committee of a political party entitled to an appointment shall fail or refuse to submit a list as aforesaid, the mayor shall nominate any party voter of the political party entitled to said appointment.
(b) Powers and duties. The board of canvassers shall:
(1) Select one of its members as presiding officer and another as clerk of the board;
(2) Exercise the powers and duties established by law for such boards concerning nominations, elections, registration of voters and canvassing rights, the preparing and correcting of voting lists and other matters relating thereto;
(3) Make or furnish all returns or other things required by law of such boards within the purview of state election law;
(4) Appoint and employ all its necessary clerical and technical assistants and fix the compensation of each person so appointed, within the limits of funds available to it pursuant to law.
Cross reference(s)--Boards and commissions, Art. XI; general provisions for boards, authorities and commissions, § 1202.
204. Wards and ward boundaries.
The city shall be divided into fifteen (15) wards, the boundaries of which shall be drawn pursuant to the provisions of this section.
(a) The city council shall, following each federal decennial census, enact an ordinance providing for the establishment of the boundary lines of the fifteen (15) wards of the city, said boundary lines to be established following the federal census of 1980, and to be revised as necessary to conform to the criteria set forth in subsection (b) of this section, following the federal census of 1990 and each census thereafter.
(b) The procedure for establishing or revising the ward boundary lines, as the case may be, shall be the following:
(1) At its first meeting in September, 1981, and at its first meeting in September each tenth year thereafter, the city council shall elect a committee on ward boundaries of five (5) members, who may be members of the city council or other qualified persons who are electors of, and are domiciled in, the city as defined in Section 206 below. Three (3) members are to be elected by the majority party, and two (2) members are to be elected by the members of the city council who are not members of that party. The committee shall draw up a plan for establishing or revising the ward.
(2) Upon receiving the plan, the city council shall hold at least one public hearing thereon, following the completion of which the city council shall adopt the plan as presented or with such amendments as it shall think proper.
(3) The procedure set forth in this subsection shall be completed no later than March 1, 1982, in the case of the committee appointed in September, 1981, and March first of each tenth year thereafter.
(c) The committee on ward boundaries and the city council shall insure that said boundaries are drawn in accordance with the following criteria:
(1) Equality of ward populations so far as practicable;
(2) Compactness and contiguousness of the territory of each ward;
(3) The use of natural boundaries, and the inclusion of recognized neighborhoods within wards without arbitrary divisions thereof, so far as practicable.
205. Swearing in of elected officials.
The mayor and the members of the city council, before taking office, shall first be sworn or affirmed to the faithful discharge of their duties, and to the support of the Constitution and laws of the State of Rhode Island and of the Constitution of the United States, in the form and manner provided by law. The oath shall be administered by the judge of the probate court of the City of Providence, or in the judge's absence by the clerk thereof; such oath shall be administered only to a candidate or candidates to whom a certificate of election has been issued as required by law; provided, however, that said oath may be refused to any candidate where the election of such candidate shall have been declared void by a court of competent jurisdiction.
206. Vacancies in elective offices.
(a) Vacancies in the offices covered by the provisions of this article shall be defined and filled pursuant to the provisions of this section. For the purposes of this section, a vacancy in a city elective office shall be declared to exist by the city council in the event the incumbent thereof:
(1) Dies;
(2) Holds any other elective public office carrying a salary, whether such office be municipal, state, or federal;
(3) Ceases to be domiciled in, and a qualified elector of, the city; or, in the case of a member of the city council, ceases to be domiciled in, and a qualified elector of, the ward from which the member of the city council was elected. As used herein, domiciled shall mean "that place where a person has his or her, true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment, and to which whenever he or she is absent has the intention of returning";
(4) Resigns;
(5) Is convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude and has exhausted all appeals from said conviction;
(6) Is recalled as provided hereafter; or
(7) Is otherwise permanently incapable of performing his or her duties of office.
The city council shall provide by ordinance such definitions and procedures as may be necessary and appropriate to carry out its duties under this section, including but not limited to the suspension of an official convicted of a felony from performing any official duties until said official's status is finally determined.
(b) If a vacancy occurs in the office of mayor or of a member of the city council more than one hundred eighty (180) days before the time of holding the next succeeding regular city election, the city council shall call a special election for the purpose of filling such vacancy for the remainder of such person's term, such special election to be held within ninety (90) days of the date of the occurrence of such vacancy. If any such vacancy occurs one hundred eighty (180) days or less before the time of holding the next succeeding regular city election, the city council shall call a special election for said purpose, to be held within said period of ninety (90) days, on demand in writing signed by at least one-third of all the members of the city council, and filed with the board of canvassers and the city clerk at least one hundred (100) days prior to the time of holding the next succeeding regular city election. In the event that any state election, regular or special, or any city election for any other purpose shall be held within said period of ninety (90) days, the city council may in its discretion order any special election required by the provisions of this section to be held at the same time as such other city or state election.
207. Enforcement.
In the event that the city council does not declare a vacancy in the city council pursuant to section 206(a) above, any fifty (50) qualified electors of a single ward may file a signed statement with the city clerk charging that the member of the city council elected from said ward has ceased to possess one or more of the qualifications of office, and stating the particulars as to what lack of qualifications is charged. The city clerk shall present the charges to the city council at its next regular meeting, and at such meeting, the city council shall set a time and place for the holding of a public hearing thereon. Such hearing shall be held not more than fifteen (15) days after said meeting of the city council, and the city council shall determine whether the charges shall be sustained. Upon the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire city council, the seat shall be deemed vacant and shall be filled pursuant to the provisions of section 206(b) above.
208. Recall.
The mayor and members of the city council may be removed from office by recall, provided that recall may not be initiated during either the first six (6) months or the last year of an incumbent's term. The procedure to accomplish removal by recall shall be as follows:
(a) A declaration of intent to petition for recall shall be filed with the city clerk; in seeking recall of the mayor said declaration shall include the signatures of one thousand (1,000) qualified city electors, or in the case of members of the city council shall include the signatures of three hundred (300) qualified electors of the ward from which such member was elected;
(b) Within one hundred twenty (120) days of the presentation of said declaration, a written petition demanding the removal of the mayor or member of the city council shall be filed with the city clerk. When removal of the mayor is demanded, said petition shall include the signatures of fifteen (15) per cent of all qualified city electors, provided that no more than fifteen (15) per cent of the total signatures thereon may be from any one ward of the city. When removal of a member of city council is demanded, said petition shall include the signatures of twenty (20) per cent of the qualified electors of the ward from which such member of city council was elected. The signatures on any recall petition provided for in this subsection may be on separate papers, but to each separate paper there shall be attached a signed statement of the circulator thereof, who states therein under oath, that each signature appended to said paper was made in the presence of the circulator. All such papers comprising a recall petition may be bound together and filed as one instrument at one time, or may be filed at different times as separate papers; provided, however, that all such separate papers must be filed within the time limit set in this subsection.
(c) The city clerk shall refer said petition forthwith to the board of canvassers which shall within ten (10) days from the date of the filing of such petition examine it and shall from the voters registered determine the sufficiency thereof and certify the results to the city council forthwith; if the examination shows that the petition contains the requisite number of signatures, the city council shall order and fix, forthwith, a date for holding an election, which date shall not be less than thirty (30) nor more than sixty (60) days from the date that the board of canvassers certified the petition as sufficient;
(d) Each ballot at such election shall have printed thereon the following question: "Shall (name of person) be removed from the office of (name of office)?" Immediately following such question, there shall be printed on the ballot the following two (2) propositions in this order:
"Yes"
"No"
(e) In any such election, if a majority of the votes cast on the question of removal is affirmative, the person whose removal is sought shall thereupon be deemed removed from office as of certification of the results by the board of elections.
(f) The city council may, through ordinance, make other and further regulations for carrying out the provisions of this section not inconsistent herewith.
209. The initiative.
The right to enact ordinances is hereby granted to the qualified electors of the city by initiative, provided that such power shall not extend to the budget or capital programs or to any ordinance relating to the appropriation of money, or to the levy of taxes or to the salaries and benefits of city officials or employees. The initiative shall be exercised in the following manner:
(a) Whenever one thousand (1,000) qualified electors of the city petition the city council to enact a proposed ordinance, it shall be the duty of the city council to consider such proposed ordinance within seventy (70) days of receipt. Receipt, for the purpose of this subsection, shall be defined as the reading of said petition at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the city council.
(b) The signatures on any initiative petition provided for in this subsection may be on separate papers; provided, however, that each such separate paper shall contain a full and correct copy of the title and text of the proposed ordinance and all such separate papers shall be bound together and filed as one instrument with the city clerk. To each said separate paper there shall be attached a signed statement of the circulator thereof, who states therein under oath, that each signature appended to said paper was made in the presence of the circulator.
(c) In the event that the city council shall fail to enact such proposed ordinance without amendment, and upon the receipt by the city clerk of a notarized referendum petition signed by an additional five (5) per cent of the qualified electors of the city, the city council shall submit such proposed ordinance to a vote of the people of the city at the next general election; provided, however, that said ballot referendum petition must be filed at least sixty (60) days prior to the date fixed for such general election.
(d) The ballots used when voting upon such proposed ordinance shall include an ordinance title which shall state the purpose or intent of such ordinance, the question, "Shall the ordinance pass?" and shall set forth on separate lines the words "Yes" and "No."
(e) If a majority of the electors voting on the proposed ordinance shall vote in favor thereof, such ordinance shall thereupon become a valid binding ordinance of the city; an ordinance so adopted shall not be altered or modified by the city council within one year after the adoption of the ordinance at said general election.
(f) The city council may, by ordinance, make such other further regulations for carrying out the provisions of this section as are not inconsistent herewith.
ARTICLE III. MAYOR
301. Executive and administrative powers.
The executive and administrative powers of the city shall be vested in a mayor, who shall have and exercise all powers and duties that are or may be vested in the office of mayor by this Charter, the ordinances of the city council, and by the laws of the state.
302. Powers and duties of the mayor.
The powers and duties of the mayor shall include, without limitation, the following:
(a) To supervise, direct and control the activities of all departments and agencies of city government to the extent and in the manner provided by this Charter and by the ordinances of the city, and the laws of the state.
(b) To appoint all heads of city departments and agencies with the approval of the city council, except as otherwise provided in this Charter, and to appoint such other officials as the mayor may be empowered to appoint by this Charter or by the laws of the state, with the approval of the city council unless the power of appointment is vested in the mayor alone. Except as otherwise provided herein, all such appointees shall serve at the pleasure of the mayor. In no case shall a person serving under an acting appointment hold office on that basis for more than ninety (90) days, nor shall a regular appointee serve beyond the expiration of the term for which he or she was appointed unless reappointed in accordance herewith.
(c) To prepare and implement the city budget.
(d) To call special meetings of the city council in the manner provided in section 406 of Article IV of this Charter.
(e) To communicate to the city, from time to time, such information and recommendations as the mayor may think appropriate.
(f) To pass upon all ordinances and resolutions adopted by the city council and exercise the right of veto conferred upon the mayor by the provisions of section 412 of Article IV of this Charter. The right of veto shall include the authority to veto any ordinance or resolution in its entirety, and as to any budget or appropriation, to veto or reduce any separate line item or items.
(g) To insure that all officers of the city faithfully comply with and discharge their official duties.
(h) To assign or reassign by executive order any governmental function or functions not specifically provided for by this Charter to any department or agency herein established.
(i) To declare a state of emergency when the mayor shall deem such action necessary to preserve the public peace, property, health or safety of the city, such declaration to have effect for no more than sixty (60) days unless renewed with the approval of three-fourths of all of the members of the city council.
303. Salary.
The compensation of the mayor shall be fixed pursuant to the provisions of Article IV, section 415.
304. Absence or disability.
Whenever the mayor is temporarily unable to perform the duties of the office because of illness or accident as declared by the city council by an affirmative vote of three-fourths of its members or because of absence from the city for more than fifteen (15) consecutive days, the powers and duties of the mayor shall be exercised and performed by the president of the city council. The city council shall have the power to prescribe by ordinance or resolution such definitions and procedures as may be necessary for the application of the provisions of this section, but not inconsistent therewith.
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