(2) The secretary shall present any such petition at the next meeting of the board of directors of the improvement company. The board shall fix a time for the hearing thereof, either at a special meeting of the members of the corporation called for the purpose, or at the next regular annual meeting of the members. At such meeting, the petitioners may present witnesses and be represented either in person or by attorney, to establish the allegations set forth in the petition. Upon such hearing, the matter of including or excluding such lands from the district shall be put to a vote of the members, and if a majority vote of the members owning lands in the district is in favor of the relief asked for in the petition, then an order shall be made in the minutes in accordance with such vote.
(3) The secretary shall thereupon make a certificate certifying to the fact of the filing of such petition and the hearing thereon, and the action taken by the members of the district, and in such certificate shall describe the land included or excluded from the district, as the case may be. The secretary shall submit the certificate to the Office of the Secretary of State for filing and shall file a true copy of the certificate with the county clerk of the county where the lands are situated. From and after the filing of the certificate by the Secretary of State the land described in the certificate shall be included or excluded, as the case may be, in or from the improvement company district.
(4) The articles of incorporation of the Malheur Improvement Company shall upon the filing of the certificate by the Secretary of State, and without any procedure other than as in this section provided, be deemed amended to include or exclude, as the case may be, the lands described in such certificate; provided, however, that any land within such improvement company district, and excluded therefrom on petition, shall not be relieved from the payment of its proportion of any bonded indebtedness created and outstanding of the company, prior to the exclusion of such lands therefrom. Lands without the improvement company district, and included therein by petition, shall be subject to any assessment thereafter levied by the company, whether for bonded indebtedness or otherwise. [Amended by 1987 c.94 §157]