Image from city of Homewood website
These are the 11 current members of the Homewood City Council. A petition is circulating to change the city's form of government to have only four council members elected from wards and a mayor elected citywide, and to hire a professional city manager to run day-to-day operations.
Homewood officials have started circulating a petition to have a referendum to switch from a mayor-council form of government to a council-city manager setup.
Instead of a part-time mayor and 11 City Council members, the proposed arrangement is to have four council members elected from four wards and a mayor on the council, and to hire a professional city manager to run the day-to-day operations of the city.
In order to hold the referendum, the petition requires signatures from 10% of voters from the last municipal election who still reside in the city.
City officials said there is no formal deadline to stop collecting signatures on the petition. However, they hope to have the referendum no later than August.
Once signatures are collected, the state requires that a referendum be held between 40 and 90 days from the time signatures are collected. Otherwise the signatures are no longer valid.
If 10% of voters agree to hold a referendum, the petition would be submitted to the probate court, and an official date would be scheduled for a special election.
If the vote to change the form of government is approved, it would be enacted in November 2025, when the new council is seated.
See a copy of the petition that can be downloaded and carried to the second floor of Homewood City Hall once signed.
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See more details in the cover story for the April print edition of The Homewood Star.
