Not tonight, but next Tuesday. That's when round two will take place. In one corner: Mayor Howard Johnson, who wants to retain his executive powers. In the other: the sitting City Council, which won't stand for the mayor to call all the shots.

At issue: A proposed ordinance divesting the mayor of some of his powers and investing them in a strong city manager instead.

"Bottom line: The people own this city and choose the form of government," Johnson said Monday. "It is not acceptable for the council to try and change it."

Johnson cracked down on the council's first stab at government change in early April, saying an earlier closed-door meeting the council had to discuss the matter was illegal.

Depending on the legal advice he gets from the Utah Attorney General's Office, the mayor said he probably will allow the council to discuss and vote on the proposed ordinance April 25.

Still reeling from City Administrator Ed Collins' resignation, council members appear eager to take another swing at settling the spat.

"It needs to be looked at," Councilman Johnny Barnes said Monday. "It's better to have five people [on the council] making decisions than just" the mayor.

Council members' proposal would empower a city manager - not the mayor - to hire and fire. The mayor would continue to chair meetings, attend ribbon cuttings and vote to break ties.

Johnson has shaken up the municipal status quo since taking office in January. For instance, he recently told Collins he would not reappoint him, prompting the city administrator to resign effective at the end of June. The mayor also put other staff and department heads on notice that they might not be reappointed.

Barnes said that has hurt city employees' esprit de corps. He also argues finding another city administrator with Collins' savvy and expertise won't be easy.

"In the 13 years I've been on the council, I've never seen the staff's morale so low," he said. "In the last three months, it's felt like [city government] has been on a steep incline with the vehicle in neutral. We're not going forward, but we're starting to slip backward, and we've been relying on the emergency brake. . . . I'd like nothing better [in this dispute] than to get rid of the sides, get rid of the corners and to get the mayor and the council on the same page."

Resident Heather Groom counters that Barnes and his council colleagues are the ones stalling progress.

"They've created a lot of contention," she said. "When Howard Johnson became mayor, I don't feel that they gave him a fair shot. They didn't try to work out their differences."

Emily Hansen, who also sides with Johnson, said Lehi residents voted him in, and they should be afforded the right to decide who - the mayor or the council and a city manager - runs the city.

"If the council wants to take away the mayor's power, we should be ones voting on that. We're the ones who pay the city big bucks," she said.

If the council votes for change, Johnson said residents might have to reverse the decision in the courts or at the polls.

meddington@sltrib.com