Lakewood residents can propose an ordinance by a petition signed by at least 5% of the electors registered at the last regular municipal election. For a legislative ordinance eligible for referendum under the charter, a petition signed by at least 3% of the electors registered at the last regular municipal election can require a public vote unless the council repeals it, if the petition is filed before the ordinance takes effect. When the city clerk finds a petition sufficient, the charter provides for presentation to the council at the first regular meeting more than 30 days after filing or at a special meeting on the first Monday more than 30 days after filing. The council then has 30 days to adopt an initiated ordinance unchanged or send it to voters. Once the clerk presents a referendum petition, the charter suspends the challenged ordinance, and the council must repeal it in full or put it to a vote.
Lakewood Charter Amendment on Initiative and Referendum Election Timing
The initiative and the referendum let residents act when the council will not. Question 2J gives the Lakewood City Council more room over the timing of a vote that residents have earned by petition. Today the charter caps that wait at 90 days after the council receives a sufficient petition. The amendment moves the cap to 150 days, counted from the clerk's earlier final determination of sufficiency, and lets the council hold the question for any regular municipal election inside that longer span.
The council gives two reasons. Its mail-ballot reasons concern the shortest wait, the time needed to print and mail ballots. Its second is that state statutes for municipal initiatives and referendums allow elections up to 150 days after the final determination. A statute that allows 150 days is a permission, and Lakewood's charter decides how much of it the city uses. The amendment raises the longest wait to the full 150 days and leaves the choice of date within that span to the officials whose decisions the petitions check. I oppose widening that control.
I recommend a no vote on City of Lakewood ballot question 2J.
Establishing time frames for holding regular or special elections for initiative ordinances and referendums
Shall Sections 13.1(d) and 13.2(e) of the Lakewood Home Rule Charter regarding initiative and referendum procedures be amended to extend the time frame for conducting regular or special elections on initiative ordinances and referendums to not less than sixty (60) days and not more than one hundred fifty (150) days after the final determination of petition sufficiency?
Approves new petition-election deadlines measured from the final determination of petition sufficiency: 60 to 150 days for a special election and up to 150 days for a regular municipal election under the ordinance's amended charter text.
Keeps the charter's current time frame for holding initiative and referendum elections.
Charter Sections 13.1(d) and 13.2(e) set when that vote happens. Today, the charter sets a special-election window of 30 to 90 days after the clerk presents the petition to council, or permits a regular municipal election within 90 days. The city's election code separately requires a petitioned ordinance that may only be considered at a ballot-issue election to go on the next such election at least 90 days after presentation.
Question 2J replaces those limits. A special election comes at least 60 days and no more than 150 days after the final determination of petition sufficiency, or the council can place the question on a regular municipal election held within those 150 days. The certified question describes a 60-to-150-day window after the final determination of petition sufficiency for regular or special elections. The ordinance's amended charter text applies that minimum to special elections and sets only a 150-day maximum for a regular municipal election. The count starts at a different point: under the city's petition code, the clerk makes the final determination first and presents the petition at the council's next regular meeting.
The council referred the question in Ordinance O-2026-28, adopted August 10, 2026. If voters approve, the change takes effect January 1, 2027.
The ordinance says the 30-to-90-day window was workable for in-person elections but is impractical for elections by mail ballot, which require printing and mailing ballots and receiving them back. It points to active and overseas military voters, who need extra time to receive and return ballots. It notes that state statutes on municipal initiatives and referendums allow elections 60 to 150 days after the clerk's final determination of sufficiency.
- O-2026-28: An Ordinance calling for a coordinated special municipal election ... to replace the language establishing time frames for…City of Lakewood, City Clerk's OfficeCity of Lakewood ordinance noting that voters approved a ballot question amending Charter Section 13 on November 2, 1999.
- 2026 Lakewood City Council Ordinances (index and council voting record)City of Lakewood, City Clerk's OfficeCity of Lakewood ordinance index listing the 2026 City Council Ordinances.
- O-2026-21 (as amended 07-27-2026): An Ordinance amending Chapter 2.52 of the Lakewood Municipal Code pertaining to initiative and…City of Lakewood, City Clerk's OfficeCity of Lakewood ordinance amending Chapter 2.52 of the Municipal Code pertaining to initiative and referendum procedures.
- City Charter discussionCity of Lakewood · Sep 4, 2026City of Lakewood questions-and-answers page stating the source provides updated text of ballot questions.