City Councilman Charles K. Djou will introduce a charter amendment resolution this morning that would put the city's proposed $3.7 billion elevated commuter rail project to a public vote in the November general election.

The announcement is expected at a 10:30 a.m. news conference at Honolulu Hale today.

In a separate move, Djou also will propose amending an existing charter amendment resolution to include language that would ask voters whether or not they also want a rail system. The original resolution would allow voters to decide whether or not to create a public transit authority.

Djou is against the rail project but believes the public should have a right to vote for or against it.

If the resolutions are approved by the City Council, the charter amendments would be on the Nov. 4 ballot.

A charter amendment resolution requires a two-thirds council vote of six members on three separate occasions.

The mayor has the power to veto such a proposal, said City Clerk Denise C. De Costa. She said a mayor's veto would kill the effort because the council cannot override a veto of a charter amendment that it initiated.

The clerk is appointed by the council, unlike Cabinet members, who are selected by the mayor, appointed and removed on his authority.

Djou's move comes on the eve of controversy surrounding an effort by anti-rail group Stop Rail Now to put its own measure on the November ballot.

The city charter says that no special initiative election shall be held if an election is scheduled within 180 days of submission of the proposal, which would mean the deadline has passed to file a petition with her office in time for the Nov. 4 election, she said.

A special election could be approved, however, if the group submits a petition with signatures equal to at least 15 percent of the votes cast in the mayor's race during the general election. The earliest the petition could be submitted is Nov. 5.

From the date that a petition is turned in, the charter requires that a special election be called within 90 days, though not necessarily be held in that time, De Costa said.