Two of the mayor’s long-standing ideas will finally get their day in the sun.

Mayor Ken Shearin for more than a year has wanted staggered elections for City Council members. He also wants to eliminate the automatic approval of the city manager’s annual budget proposal if the council can’t agree on a budget.

After meeting with four members of the 1982 City Charter commission, Mr. Shearin plans to formally take his proposals to the rest of the council. If the council agrees, voters could approve the changes with a simple majority.

That could happen as early as this November’s presidential election, but logistical hang-ups could push things back.

Mr. Shearin has blamed part of the council’s missteps on his own and the others’ inexperience. Eight of the nine council members were newly elected in a near sweep in 2006.

The staggered terms would ensure that no more than five council members could be replaced at one time.

“I don’t want anyone else to have to come in with this much inexperience,” Mr. Shearin said.

The logistics remain to be worked out, but the 2010 election would be the last in which all nine members are elected at once. After that, the council still would have four-year terms, but the seats would be divided into two groups with staggered elections every two years.

Four members of the original Charter commission — Steve Briggs, Charlie Lau, Waldo Burger and Sharon McKinney — met with Mr. Shearin and council members Barbara LaBass and Bill Falkner to discuss the changes, and all reportedly agreed on the staggered elections.

“That was pretty easily unanimous based on what has occurred these last two years-plus,” said Mr. Lau, who chaired the earlier Charter commission. “I think probably that there will be a lot of support for that.”

Mr. Briggs, an attorney, said he agreed to help research the issues and draft ordinances for the council to decide.

The budget issue, however, is more of a political issue with City Manager Vince Capell.

The current Charter automatically adopts the manager’s proposed budget if the council doesn’t approve a new budget before the end of the fiscal year (June 30).

The mayor instead proposes to revert back to the previous year’s budget until the council agrees on a new budget, similar to the state of Missouri’s and federal government’s policies.

So far, it’s a hypothetical situation. But Ms. LaBass, who was the only council member to vote against this year’s budget, said the change “is critical” because otherwise opposition is meaningless.

“We might as well vote for it because it’s going to pass anyway,” Ms. LaBass said.

Mr. Capell said last year that he would wait to comment on the changes until the council met publicly to review them.

Joe Blumberg can be reached at joeblumberg@npgco.com.