The village will explore changing its governmental structure as it updates its strategic plan from 1997.

Residents and committee members discussed Tuesday night if the village should keep its current statutory form of government, move to a hybrid version of statutory and charter, or move to charter the village outright.

In the end, participants decided the Enon Strategic Plan Chapter 2 committee would recommend a move to adopt a charter. The committee said will make the village more efficient and better able to account for its finances.

It would have the most benefit to the village compared to the other options, Councilman Jerry Crane said, chair of the committee.

In the committee’s written recommendation, which will be inserted into the final strategic plan to be presented to council next year, it said: “Replacing the village administrator with a village manager and extablishing a financial officer to assume the financial duties of the clerk-treasurer should promote efficiency and improve financial accountability.”

Such a structure could mean the public would elect seven council members, and the council would appoint one of them mayor.

Crane felt voters should continue to elect its mayor, six council members and a clerk, as it does now. That election process is in the recommendation.

“I want the mayor to have power,” Crane said.

Under the village’s current form of government, personnel issues take up too much of the mayor’s time, and they can’t focus on the business of the village, Crane said.

A village administrator has no hiring and firing power, whereas a contracted manager would have that responsibility. It would also open a position for an accounting professional who could better account for village funds, Crane said.

For now, it’s a proposal that would go before council, which would then agree on a chairman to form a charter committee. The committee would draft the charter to go before council for approval, then to the voters for their approval.

The earliest it could be on the ballot is two years, according to Crane.

The Ohio State University students working on the Community Living portion of the strategic plan met with area business leaders and the public last week and are finalizing their report. They’re expected to present it to the larger committee Dec. 3 in Columbus.