Section XVIII-3(a): (a) Framing and adoption of charter - Approval by Governor - Effect - Record - Amendment.

  Any city containing a population of more than two thousand
inhabitants may frame a charter for its own government,
consistent with and subject to the Constitution and laws of this
State, by causing a board of freeholders, composed of two from
each ward, who shall be qualified electors of said city, to be
elected by the qualified electors of said city, at any general or
special election, whose duty it shall be, within ninety days
after such election, to prepare and propose a charter for such
city, which shall be signed in duplicate by the members of such
board or a majority of them, and returned, one copy of said
charter to the chief executive officer of such city, and the
other to the Register of Deeds of the county in which said city
shall be situated.  Such proposed charter shall then be published
in one or more newspapers published and of general circulation
within said city, for at least twenty-one days, if in a daily
paper, or in three consecutive issues, if in a weekly paper, and
the first publication shall be made within twenty days after the
completion of the charter; and within thirty days, and not
earlier than twenty days after such publication, it shall be
submitted to the qualified electors of said city at a general or
special election, and if a majority of such qualified electors
voting thereon shall ratify the same, it shall thereafter be
submitted to the Governor for his approval, and the Governor
shall approve the same if it shall not be in conflict with the
Constitution and laws of this State.  Upon such approval it shall
become the organic law of such city and supersede any existing
charter and all amendments thereof and all ordinances
inconsistent with it.  A copy of such charter, certified by the
chief executive officer, and authenticated by the seal of such
city, setting forth the submission of such charter to the
electors and its ratification by them shall, after the approval
of such charter by the Governor, be made in duplicate and
deposited, one in the office of the Secretary of State, and the
other, after being recorded in the office of said Register of
Deeds, shall be deposited in the archives of the city; and
thereafter all courts shall take judicial notice of said charter.
The charter so ratified may be amended by proposals therefor,
submitted by the legislative authority of the city to the
qualified electors thereof (or by petition as hereinafter
provided) at a general or special election, and ratified by a
majority of the qualified electors voting thereon, and approved
by the Governor as herein provided for the approval of the
charter.