AN ACT amending the charter of the city of wilmington to allow proposed ordinances to be submitted to the city council by petition signed by electors of the city equal in number to twenty‑five percent of the total number of registered voters residing within the city at the time of the last regular municipal election. 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Section 5.1 of the Charter of the City of Wilmington, being Chapter 495 of the 1977 Session Laws, as amended by Chapter 367 of the 1983 Session Laws, reads as rewritten:
"Sec. 5.1. Initiative ordinances generally.
(a)	Any proposed ordinance may be submitted to the council by petition signed by electors of the city equal in number to the percentages hereinafter required. If the petition accompanying the proposed ordinance is signed by electors of the city equal in number to twenty‑five percent (25%) of the total number of registered voters residing within the City of Wilmington at the time of the last regular municipal election and contains a request that such ordinance be submitted to a vote of the people, if not passed by the council, the council shall either:
(1)	Pass the ordinance without alteration within 20 days after the city clerk and the New Hanover County Board of Elections have certified the sufficiency of the accompanying petition; or
(2)	Within 20 days after the city clerk and the New Hanover County Board of Elections have certified the sufficiency of the petition, the council shall call a special election to be held within six months, unless a general election is fixed within six months thereafter. At such special or general election the ordinance shall be submitted without alteration to the vote of the electors of the city.
...."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 9th day of June, 2016.

	s/	 Daniel J. Forest
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Tim Moore
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives