Phoenix Citizen Petition Template

What this is

A citizen petition is the one thing in the Phoenix City Charter that lets a resident put an item in front of the whole Council and require them to act on it. Chapter IV, Section 22: any citizen may present a written petition at a regular meeting, and the Council shall act upon it within fifteen days. Most people never use it. The City's own January 2024 procedure says a qualifying petition gets a legislative file for the next regularly scheduled Formal meeting.

This template is the mechanism, not the ask. It carries no position of its own. You attach your proposal as Exhibit A, and the petition does the procedural work around it: it states what the Charter requires, prints the motion a Councilmember reads aloud, and closes the routes that let a petition get received, referred, or quietly filed away without a vote.

What it rests on

Three provisions, read together. Section 22 makes action mandatory and sets the fifteen days. Section 8 limits the Council to four forms of action — resolution, ordinance, franchise, or formal recorded action. Code Rule 7(l) requires individual votes recorded in the minutes on all of them. So acting on your petition is a recorded vote with every member's name attached, and a staff report or a General Information Packet entry is not Council action at all.

Two more matter once you are in the room. Charter Section 23 and Rule 7(i) say a member who fails to vote is recorded as voting aye. Silence is not neutrality here — whoever gets a motion to the floor first sets the default.

How to use it

Fill the bracketed fields and attach your Exhibit A. Present it during Citizen Comments at a Formal City Council Meeting and say the words "this is a citizen petition" — the City's procedure recognizes no other channel, and unlabeled handouts are treated as ordinary public comment. If you are participating virtually, email the petition to the City Clerk's Office the same day.

Line up a mover and a second before the meeting. One supportive member is not enough: a motion that dies for want of a second is never voted, and none of the recorded-vote provisions above ever engage.

Adapt it. File it under your own name. You do not need us.

# CITIZEN PETITION [[NUMBER]]

## [[TITLE]]

**Submitted under Phoenix City Charter, Chapter IV, Section 22**

**To:** The Mayor and Council of the City of Phoenix

| | |
|---|---|
| **Date presented** | [[DATE_PRESENTED]] |
| **Formal meeting** | [[DATE_MEETING]] |
| **Petition** | Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] |

### Petitioner

**Name:** `[[PETITIONER_NAME]]`

*I am a citizen and resident of the City of Phoenix.*

### Supporting persons

The following support this petition. They are not petitioners of record and are not substitutes for the resident petitioner and speaker:

`[[SUPPORTERS]]`

---

## Proposition Presented

[[PROPOSITION]]

Adoption of the motion below approves the proposition presented. Rejection of that motion denies it.

---

## Council Action Required

Phoenix City Charter, Chapter IV, Section 22 provides that a written petition presented to the Council at a regular meeting **shall be acted upon by the Council in the regular course of business, within fifteen (15) days.** Section 8 provides that **the Council shall act only by resolution, ordinance, franchise, or formal recorded action.** Section 9 requires that, for other than unanimous votes, the ayes and nays be taken and entered upon the journal of the proceedings of the Council.

Acting upon this petition therefore requires a recorded Council vote within fifteen days, with each member's vote recorded in the minutes. Clerk receipt, a staff report, a General Information Packet entry, and assignment of this petition by any officer other than the Council are not Council action in any form permitted by Section 8, and none of them acts upon this petition.

Within fifteen days after presentation, the Council shall **take legal action on** Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] at a properly noticed public meeting, as its own separately numbered Formal Agenda item, by adopting or rejecting Exhibit A, with each member's vote recorded in the minutes. The legal action shall be taken on the following motion:

### The motion

> **I move to adopt Exhibit A to Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] as submitted.**

### Instrument assignment

If Exhibit A is an [[INSTRUMENT]] requiring a number for the reading and passage provisions of Phoenix City Code § 2-78, the City shall assign that number without changing Exhibit A's operative wording. Assignment of the number, codifier formatting, completion of execution and signature blocks, and mechanical adjustment of an internal cross-reference are nonsubstantive only if no operative meaning changes and the referenced provision remains the same. A redline identifying every difference from Exhibit A as submitted shall be included in the legislative file. Any change to operative wording is governed by the Preservation section below.

### Treatment of the legislative file

1. The petition and Exhibit A shall be attached unchanged.
2. Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] shall be identified by number and title in the agenda title, the legislative file, the voting result, and the minutes.

### Disposition

The disposition is a separate recorded vote on the motion above. Receipt, referral, discussion, continuation, an informational report, a direction to conduct research, a direction to prepare different language, assignment to a subcommittee, action on another petition, or a consolidated vote does not act upon Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]].

The petitioner does not consent to consolidation of this petition with any other petition or measure for a single motion, a single vote, or a collective roll call.

The petitioner does not concede that the City's administrative qualification process can alter the Phoenix City Charter.

---

## Charter and Code Provisions on Voting

**Phoenix City Charter, Chapter IV, Section 22 — How petitions to be presented and acted upon:**

> Any citizen of this City may appear before the Council at any regular meeting and present a written petition; such petition shall be acted upon by the Council in the regular course of business, within fifteen (15) days.

**Phoenix City Charter, Chapter IV, Section 8 — Council to act by resolution, ordinance, franchise or formal recorded action:**

> The Council shall act only by resolution, ordinance, franchise, or formal recorded action.

**Phoenix City Charter, Chapter IV, Section 9 — Ayes and nays to be recorded:**

> For other than unanimous votes the ayes and nays shall be taken upon the vote of all ordinances, resolutions, franchises and formal recorded actions and entered upon the journal of the proceedings of the Council.

**Phoenix City Charter, Chapter IV, Section 23 — When Member excused from voting; failure to vote:**

> No Member shall be excused from voting except upon matters involving the consideration of his own official conduct. In all other cases a failure to vote shall be entered on the minutes as an affirmative vote.

**Phoenix City Code § 2-60, Rule 7(i):**

> Council members shall not be excused from voting. A failure to vote or a voluntary abstention shall count as an "aye" vote unless excused by an announced conflict of interest.

**Phoenix City Code § 2-60, Rule 7(a):**

> A majority of the members of the Council shall constitute a quorum. The Charter requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the Council to pass any ordinance, franchise, resolution or formal recorded action.

**Phoenix City Code § 2-60, Rule 7(l):**

> The journal of the proceedings of the Council (meeting minutes) shall record individual votes on all ordinances, resolutions, franchises, formal actions, and liquor license applications recommended for disapproval. For voice votes of ayes and nays that are not unanimous, the Mayor shall indicate the individual votes. The Mayor may require that Council members' votes be clarified.

---

## Preservation of the Petitioner's Proposal

If a motion, substitute motion, amendment, or revised attachment changes Exhibit A's substance, scope, required actor, duty, timing, legal standard, or disposition, the changed text is a City-authored alternative. Council action on that alternative is not adoption or rejection of this petition as submitted. A staff report or agenda summary that characterizes Exhibit A differently does not amend the submitted text and does not control its meaning.

An alternative instrument supplied by staff or a Councilmember does not change what this petition requires.

---

## Agenda Title

> Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] — [[TITLE]]

## City Council Report Fields

| Field | |
|---|---|
| **Title** | Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] — [[TITLE]] |
| **Description** | This report presents Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]], which requires the Council to adopt or reject Exhibit A as submitted. The petition and Exhibit A are attached. |
| **Summary** | [[PROPOSITION]] *This summary is descriptive only. The Proposition Presented, the motion, and the unchanged Exhibit A control.* |
| **Options for Council Action** | 1. Adopt Exhibit A to Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] as submitted. 2. Reject Exhibit A to Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] as submitted. No other action adopts or rejects this petition as submitted, and any alternative text shall be separately identified as a City-authored proposal. |
| **Financial Impact** | City staff shall identify any fiscal impact it attributes to Exhibit A. |
| **Concurrence / Previous Council Action** | [[CONCURRENCE]] City staff shall identify any prior petition it contends was duplicative and duly acted upon within the past year, including the legislative-file number, meeting date, motion, and recorded Council action. |
| **Staff Recommendation** | *To be completed by City staff, stating whether the recommendation addresses Exhibit A as submitted or a separately identified City-authored alternative.* |
| **Department Responsible** | *To be identified by City staff.* |

---

Signature: `__________________________________`  Date: `________________`

### City Clerk Receipt

Received: `____________________`  Time: `________________`

Received by: `____________________________________`

---

**EXHIBIT A** — attached.

*Citizen Petition [[NUMBER]] · GOOD|GOAT · Petition Template v2.6*