2.52.070 Election procedure.

(A) The employee relations officer shall arrange within a reasonable time for a secret-ballot election to be conducted by the State Mediation and Conciliation Service in accordance with its rules and procedures and subject to the provisions of this chapter. All employee organizations which have duly submitted petitions which have been determined to be in conformance with this article shall be included on the ballot. Employees entitled to vote in such election shall be those persons employed in regular permanent positions within the designated appropriate unit who were employed during the pay period immediately prior to the date which ended at least fifteen days before the date the election commences, including those who did not work during such period because of illness, vacation, or other authorized leaves of absence, and who are employed by the city in the same unit on the date of the election.

(B) An employee organization shall be formally acknowledged as the exclusively recognized employee organization for the designated appropriate unit following an election or runoff election in which it receives a majority of the votes cast. In an election involving three or more choices, where none of the choices receives a majority of the valid votes cast, a runoff election shall be conducted between the two choices receiving the largest number of valid votes cast; the rules governing an initial election shall be applicable to a runoff election.

(C) There shall be no more than one valid election under this chapter pursuant to any petition in a twelve-month period affecting the same unit.

(D) The city and each employee organization appearing on the ballot shall bear its own costs.