SECTIONS 9300-9323

9300.  In addition to any other method provided by law, ordinancesmay be enacted by any district pursuant to this article, except thatthis article shall not apply to irrigation districts, to a districtformed under a law that does not provide a procedure for elections,to a district formed under a law which does not provide for action byordinance, to a district governed by an election procedure thatpermits voters, in electing the district's directors or trustees, tocast more than one vote per voter, or to a district in which thedirectors are empowered to cast more than one vote per director whenacting on any matter.9301.  Any proposed ordinance may be submitted to the governingboard of the district by an initiative petition filed with thedistrict elections official. Signatures to these petitions shall beobtained in the same manner as set forth in Section 9020. Affidavitsshall be attached to each petition section in the form and in themanner set forth in Section 9022.9302.  Before circulating an initiative petition in any district,the proponents of that measure shall publish a notice of intention.The notice shall be accompanied by a printed statement stating thereasons for the proposed petition. The printed statement shall notexceed 500 words. The notice shall be signed by at least one, but notmore than five, proponents, and shall be in substantially thefollowing form: "Notice of Intention to Circulate Initiative Petition Notice is hereby given of the intention of the persons whose namesappear hereon of their intention to circulate the petition withinthe ____ district for the purpose of ____. A statement of the reasonsfor the proposed action as contemplated in the petition is asfollows:"9303.  A notice of intention and statement as referred to in Section9302 shall be published or posted, or both, as follows: (a) If there is a newspaper of general circulation within thedistrict, as described in Section 6000 of the Government Code, thenotice and statement shall be published therein at least once. (b) If the petition is to be circulated in a district in whichthere is no newspaper of general circulation, the notice andstatement shall be published at least once in a newspaper of generalcirculation within the county in which the district is located, andthe notice and statement shall be posted in three public placeswithin the district.9304.  Within 10 days after the date of publication or posting, orboth, of the notice of intention and statement, the proponents shallfile a copy of the notice and statement as published or posted, orboth, together with an affidavit made by a representative of thenewspaper in which the notice was published or, if the notice wasposted, by a voter of the district certifying to the fact ofpublication or posting. The affidavit, together with a copy of thenotice of intention and statement, shall be filed with the districtelections official.9305.  After the publication or posting, or both, of the notice ofintention and statement, the petition may be circulated among thevoters of the district for signatures by any person who is a voter orwho is qualified to register to vote in the district. Each sectionof the petition shall bear a copy of the notice of intention andstatement.9306.  Signatures upon petitions and sections thereof shall besecured, and the petition, together with all sections thereof, shallbe filed within 180 days from the date of publication or posting, orboth, of the notice of intention and statement. If the petitions arenot filed within the time permitted by this section, the petition andits sections shall be void for all purposes.9307.  Each section of the petition shall have attached thereto theaffidavit of the person soliciting the signatures. This affidavitshall be substantially in the same form as set forth in Section 9022,except that the affidavit shall declare that the circulator is avoter or is qualified to register to vote in the district.9308.  (a) Except as provided in Section 9309, within 30 days fromthe date of filing of the petition, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, andholidays, the district elections official shall examine thepetition, and from the records of registration ascertain whether thepetition is signed by the requisite number of voters. A certificateshowing the results of this examination shall be attached to thepetition. (b) In determining the number of valid signatures, the districtelections official may use the duplicate file of affidavitsmaintained, or may check the signatures against facsimiles of voters'signatures, provided that the method of preparing and displaying thefacsimiles complies with law. (c) The district elections official shall notify the proponents ofthe petition as to the sufficiency or insufficiency of the petition. (d) If the petition is found insufficient, no further action shallbe taken. However, the failure to secure sufficient signatures,shall not preclude the filing of a new petition on the same subject,at a later date. (e) If the petition is found sufficient, the district electionsofficial shall certify the results of the examination to thegoverning board of the district at the next regular meeting of theboard.9309.  (a) Within 30 days from the date of filing of the petition,excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, if, from the examinationof petitions pursuant to Section 9308, more than 500 signatures havebeen signed on the petition, the district elections official may usea random sampling technique for verification of signatures. Therandom sample of signatures to be verified shall be drawn in such amanner that every signature filed with the elections official shallbe given an equal opportunity to be included in the sample. A randomsampling shall include an examination of at least 500 or 3 percent ofthe signatures, whichever is greater. (b) If the statistical sampling shows that the number of validsignatures is within 95 to 110 percent of the number of signatures ofqualified voters needed to declare the petition sufficient, thedistrict elections official, within 60 days from the date of thefiling of the petition, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays,shall examine and verify each signature filed. (c) In determining from the records of registration, what numberof valid signatures are signed on the petition, the districtelections official may use the duplicate file of affidavitsmaintained, or may check the signatures against facsimiles of voters'signatures, provided that the method of preparing and displaying thefacsimiles complies with law. (d) The district elections official shall attach to the petition,a certificate showing the result of this examination, and shallnotify the proponents of either the sufficiency or insufficiency ofthe petition. (e) If the petition is found insufficient, no action shall betaken on the petition. However, the failure to secure sufficientsignatures shall not preclude the filing later of an entirely newpetition to the same effect. (f) If the petition is found to be sufficient, the districtelections official shall certify the results of the examination tothe governing board of the district at the next regular meeting ofthe board.9310.  (a) If the initiative petition is signed by voters not lessin number than 10 percent of the voters in the district, where thetotal number of registered voters is less than 500,000, or not lessin number than 5 percent of the voters in the district, where thetotal number of registered voters is 500,000 or more, and thepetition contains a request that the ordinance be submittedimmediately to a vote of the people at a special election, thedistrict board shall do either of the following: (1) Adopt the ordinance, without alteration, either at the regularmeeting at which the certification of the petition is presented, orwithin 10 days after it is presented. (2) Immediately order that the ordinance be submitted to thevoters, without alteration, pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section1405. (b) The number of registered voters referred to in subdivision (a)shall be calculated as of the time of the last report ofregistration by the county elections official to the Secretary ofState made prior to publication or posting of the notice of intentionto circulate the initiative petition.9311.  If the initiative petition does not request a specialelection, the district board shall do either of the following: (a) Adopt the ordinance, without alteration, either at the regularmeeting at which the certification of the petition is presented, orwithin 10 days after it is presented. (b) Submit the ordinance to the voters, without alteration,pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1405, unless the ordinancepetitioned for is required to be, or for some reason is, submitted tothe voters at a special election pursuant to subdivision (a) ofSection 1405.9312.  Whenever any ordinance is required by this article to besubmitted to the voters of a district at any election, the districtelections official shall cause the ordinance to be printed. A copy ofthe ordinance shall be made available to any voter upon request. The district elections official shall mail with the sample ballotto each voter the following notice printed in no less than 10-pointtype. "If you desire a copy of the proposed ordinance, please call thedistrict elections official's office at (insert telephone number) anda copy will be mailed at no cost to you."9313.  Except as provided in Section 9314, whenever any petition issubmitted to the voters, the district elections official shalltransmit a copy of the measure to the county counsel, or to thedistrict attorney if there is no county counsel, of the county thatcontains the largest number of registered voters of the district. Thecounty counsel or district attorney shall prepare an impartialanalysis of the measure showing the effect of the measure on theexisting law and the operation of the measure. The analysis shall beprinted preceding the arguments for and against the measure. Theanalysis shall not exceed 500 words in length. In the event the entire text of the measure is not printed on theballot nor in the voter information portion of the sample ballot,there shall be printed immediately below the impartial analysis, inno less than 10-point bold type, a legend substantially as follows: "The above statement is an impartial analysis of Ordinance orMeasure ____. If you desire a copy of the ordinance or measure,please call the district elections official's office at (inserttelephone number) and a copy will be mailed at no cost to you."9314.  (a) Whenever any petition is submitted to the voters of awater district, the district elections official shall transmit a copyof the measure to the legal counsel for the water district, or tothe county counsel if there is no legal counsel for the waterdistrict, of the county that contains the largest number ofregistered voters of the water district. Except as otherwise providedin subdivision (b), if there is a legal counsel for the waterdistrict, he or she shall prepare, subject to review and revision bythe county counsel, an impartial analysis of the measure showing theeffect of the measure on the existing law and the operation of themeasure. The analysis shall be printed preceding the arguments forand against the measure. The analysis shall not exceed 500 words inlength. In the event the entire text of the measure is not printed on theballot nor in the voter information portion of the sample ballot,there shall be printed immediately below the impartial analysis, inno less than 10-point bold type, a legend substantially as follows: "The above statement is an impartial analysis of Ordinance orMeasure ____. If you desire a copy of the ordinance or measure,please call the district elections official's office at (inserttelephone number) and a copy will be mailed at no cost to you." (b) If there is no legal counsel for the water district, or if thelegal counsel for the water district and the county counsel soagree, the county counsel shall prepare the impartial analysis. (c) As used in this section: (1) "Legal counsel for the water district" means the attorneydesignated under the district's conflict of interest code as itslegal officer pursuant to Section 87300 et seq. of the GovernmentCode. (2) "County counsel" means the district attorney if there is nocounty counsel. (3) "Water district" means a water district as defined in Section20200 of the Water Code.9315.  The persons filing an initiative petition pursuant to thisarticle may file a written argument in favor of the ordinance. Thedistrict board may submit an argument against the ordinance. Neitherargument shall exceed 300 words in length, and both arguments shallbe printed and mailed to each voter with the sample ballot for theelection. The following statement shall be printed on the front cover, or ifnone, on the heading of the first page, of the printed arguments: "Arguments in support of or in opposition to the proposed laws arethe opinions of the authors." Printed arguments submitted to voters in accordance with thissection shall be titled either "Argument In Favor Of Measure ____" or"Argument Against Measure ____," accordingly, the blank spaces beingfilled in only with the letter or number, if any, designating themeasure. At the discretion of the district elections official, theword "Proposition" may be substituted for the word "Measure" in thetitles. Words used in the title shall not be counted when determiningthe length of any argument.9316.  Based on the time reasonably necessary to prepare and printthe arguments and sample ballots, and to permit the 10-calendar-daypublic examination as provided in Article 4 (commencing with Section9380) for the particular election, the district elections officialcharged with the duty of conducting the election shall fix anddetermine a reasonable date prior to the election for the submissionto the district elections official of an argument in favor of andagainst the ordinance, and additional rebuttal arguments as providedin Section 9317. Arguments may be changed or withdrawn by theirproponents until and including the date fixed by the districtelections official.9317.  (a) When an argument in favor and an argument against ameasure have been selected for publication in the voter informationpamphlet the elections official responsible for conducting theelection shall send copies of the argument in favor of the measure tothe authors of the argument against the measure and copies of thearguments against the measure to the authors of the argument infavor. The authors may prepare and submit rebuttal arguments notexceeding 250 words, or may authorize in writing any other person orpersons to prepare, submit, or sign the rebuttal argument. Therebuttal arguments shall be submitted to the elections officialconducting the election no later than a date designated by theelections official. (b) Rebuttal arguments shall be printed in the same manner as thedirect arguments. Each rebuttal argument shall immediately follow thedirect argument that it seeks to rebut and shall be titled "Rebuttalto Argument in Favor of Measure (or Proposition) ____," or "Rebuttalto Argument Against Measure (or Proposition) ____," the blank spacesbeing filled in only with the letter or number, if any, designatingthe measure. Words used in the title may not be counted whendetermining the length of any rebuttal argument.9319.  Any number of proposed ordinances may be voted upon at thesame election.9320.  If a majority of the voters voting on a proposed ordinancevote in its favor, the ordinance shall become a valid and bindingordinance of the district. The ordinance shall be considered asadopted upon the date the vote is declared by the district board, andshall go into effect 10 days after that date.9321.  If the provisions of two or more ordinances adopted at thesame election conflict, the ordinance receiving the highest number ofaffirmative votes shall control.9322.  The enacting clause of an ordinance submitted to the votersof a district shall be substantially in the following form: "The people of the ____ District do ordain as follows:"9323.  No ordinance proposed by initiative petition and adoptedeither by the district board without submission to the voters oradopted by the voters shall be repealed or amended except by a voteof the people, unless provision is otherwise made in the originalordinance. In all other respects, an ordinance proposed by initiativepetition and adopted shall have the same force and effect as anyordinance adopted by the board.