COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Possible changes in the size of Columbus City Council and the way in which each member is elected remains a hot topic ahead of a May 2nd primary. The issues have been widely discussed for more than one year.

Last August, voters overwhelmingly said “no” to a ballot initiative that would have split the city into wards and increased the number of council members. Just weeks later, leaders inside Columbus City Hall assembled a Charter Review Committee.

The committee, composed of Columbus residents, held a series of meetings and gathered public input. It published a series of recommendations in February including: expanding city council from seven to nine members and breaking the city into wards or districts. The committee recommended representatives from each district be elected “at-large,” allowing each voter to have a say in selecting a representative in each district.

Still, current city council members have yet to publicly discuss these recommendations.

“It’s really about the future of our democracy so I feel like it’s a really big deal,” says Will Petrick, a candidate for City Council and an advocate for reform.

“A move toward council districts (wards) and having someone you can pick up the phone and call that’s from your neighborhood and directly accountable to your neighborhood is definitely a step in the right direction,” he says.

Petrik thinks only voters living in a given district should elect that district’s representative. At-large voting defeats the purpose of these reforms, according to Petrik, who says the campaign cash required to run a citywide race still keeps politicians beholden to big donors instead of individuals.

Current Columbus City Council Member Elizabeth Brown is undecided on the recommendations set forth by the Charter Review Committee. She says council members will weigh in after the public has another chance for input.

“The next step of the process is an additional public engagement session that council needs to take,” she says. “It is a recommendation to us so we need to review the details and figure out what makes sense to us.”

Brown says public feedback will be really helpful as she formulates her opinion on the issue.

“I’m personally still trying to consider them and only want to consider them in light of the public feedback that we get.”

A city spokesperson tells NBC4 the issue will come before council “in the coming months.”

Some Columbus residents have continued to advocate for reforms related to this issue. Columbus City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer says the late proposal address two major issues, electoral and council size reforms as well as campaign finance reforms. He tells NBC4 a ballot proposal with two issues violates the city charter, which requires all proposals to be single issues.