More than 500 signatures have been certified in the mayoral-term petition submitted last month to the Albert Lea City Council.

City Clerk Shirley Slater-Schulte on Monday told the Albert Lea Charter Commission that 509 out of 543 signatures on the petition have been certified.

Only 360 — or 5 percent of the voters in the last general election — were needed to move forward with placing a question about the length of mayoral terms on the November ballot.

The question will ultimately ask voters whether the city’s mayor should serve two- or four-year terms.

If approved, four-year terms would go into effect for mayors elected after Nov. 1, 2014.

City Attorney Lee Bjorndal said the signatures will next be certified at the Monday City Council meeting, and then he will formulate the language for the question.

The council will vote on the approval of the language as well.

The effort to bring the question to the ballot has been a year in the making.