(a) Parties wishing to petition for a recall referendum
in an eradication zone shall notify the commissioner of their intent
in writing. No recall referendum may be held in an eradication zone
in which a recall or establishment referendum has been held within
the preceding two years. If the two-year prohibition period applies,
a petition drive conducted under this section may begin no sooner
than nine months before the expiration of the two-year period.
(b) The department shall develop and make available
a petition form for the party conducting the petition drive. The completed
form must include:
(1) certification by the person signing the petition
that the person is an eligible cotton grower or a person with the
authority to sign for the grower in the eradication zone by having
cotton production or sharing in the proceeds of cotton production
in the current crop year;
(2) the complete name and address of the eligible cotton
grower; and
(3) the date signed.
(c) Only one signature or petition form per grower
may be gathered.
(d) Signatures that are dated before the date the petition
process starts or the date allowed for the petitioning process to
begin, in accordance with subsection (a) of this section, are invalid.
(e) Grower eligibility to sign a petition shall be
determined as follows.
(1) If the petitioning process commences prior to or
after traditional cotton production in the eradication zone, the immediately
preceding cotton crop year information as maintained by the United
States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) determines
eligibility for having a grower's name on the petition.
(2) If a petition drive crosses crop years, the commissioner
shall use the most current eligible list of growers as maintained
by the FSA, and shall notify the petitioning party of the appropriate
date when the eligibility list changes. Thus, if a grower farmed in
a year other than the year determined to be the eligible year, that
signature or petition form will not be valid.
(f) Upon receipt of the notice of intent to petition,
the department shall notify the petitioning party of the eligible
voter/grower list that will be used to determine if the total number
of grower signatures or petition forms meets or exceeds 30% of growers
in the zone, as required by the Texas Agriculture Code (Code), §74.112(f).
(g) Completed petitions may be filed with the department
either by sending to the department by certified mail, return receipt
requested, or by hand-delivery to the department's headquarters in
Austin. The filing date of the petition shall be the date the petition
is actually received by the department. Signatures may not be added
to or withdrawn from a petition, once filed with the department.
(h) The petitioning party must certify that the documents
submitted to the department for review have been alphabetized, if
on individual petition forms, and that they have been screened to
eliminate possible duplicates. In addition, the petitioning party
must attest in an affidavit that all signatures are valid according
to the agreed upon eligibility list. If, upon review, greater than
10% of the signatures or petition forms are not in compliance with
this section, the petition will be deemed null and void and will be
rejected.
(i) Once a petition is received by the department,
department staff shall review the petition for compliance with the
30% requirement. The commissioner, at the commissioner's discretion,
may appoint a committee to review the petition.
(j) Within 21 days of receipt of the petition, the
department shall notify the petitioning party of a decision. Should
the petition meet all the requirements of this section, the department
shall set a referendum date within 90 days of the date the petition
was received by the department.
(k) If a referendum of growers is held, the department
shall conduct the referendum in the same manner as other referenda
conducted under the Code, Chapter 74, Subchapter D and this subchapter.
|