It will be up to the voters in Albert Lea this November to determine whether the city’s mayor should serve two- or four-year terms.

Former Albert Lea Mayor Randy Erdman on Monday presented the Albert Lea City Council with a petition requesting a four-year-term question be placed on the ballot in the upcoming general election. If approved, four-year terms would go into effect for mayors elected after Nov. 1, 2014.

Albert Lea’s mayors have served two-year terms since 1903.

Erdman said he and a committee collected 534 names on the petition, while only 360, or 5 percent of the voters in the last general election, were required to bring the question.

City Clerk Shirley Slater-Schulte will next work to verify the names, and if requirements are met, officials will then formulate the question to place on the ballot.

The issue will be brought to the Albert Lea Charter Commission May 4.

“I believe that sometimes we have taken for granted the ability of the mayor and the position of mayor,” said Erdman, who served two years in a string of six mayors who served two years or less.

The last Albert Lea mayor to serve at least four years was Marvin Wangen, 1991 to 2000.

He noted that in the last 20 years most of the regional centers in Minnesota have chosen to go to a four-year term. In fact, during the upcoming Nov. 6 election, the residents of Austin, for the first time, will elect a mayor to a four-year term.

He noted he also supported the four-year term because of the time it takes to learn the position and make suitable connections statewide.

The effort has been almost a year in the making; in May 2011, Erdman and a small group of other residents brought the issue to the Charter Commission.

Without any action taken by the Charter Commission, the group took the matter into their own hands and sought a petition.

Look to the Tribune Wednesday for more about the City Council meeting.