VICKSBURG, Miss. (WJTV) – Vicksburg residents called for a new form of local government that they said would bring better representation and less political fights.

For all of the city’s history, Vicksburg has operated with a government consisting of one mayor and two aldermen.

“Each of those aldermen represent 10,000 people, and it takes two votes to pass something. Our board meetings are open, but they tell us what they’ve done. It’s not a lot of discussion on why it was done that way,” said Marilyn Terry, who organized a petition for a special election.

The special election would allow Vicksburg voters to decide whether they want a change. Terry is advocating for a less centralized county-city manager government. It would bring five aldermen to Vicksburg, give the mayor a vote on the city council, and have a hired city manager carry out the decisions voted on by the mayor and aldermen.

“It kind of takes the politics out of it. On the ballot itself, it would say change it to a council manager form of government or leave it the same. So, there’s a choice there,” Terry said.

Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs, Jr., is against the petition. He said he previously tried to adopt a form of government, like the City of Jackson’s, and was met with pushback.

“I had two other aldermen saying that I was trying to restore the power from them. As it is now, we have equal power. I’m just the mayor of the city of Vicksburg and what I can do is I can provide the leadership that they need to move this city forward,” Flaggs said.

The City of Jackson operates under a council-mayor government, which is one that gives strong executive powers to the mayor.

The petition requires 10% of all registered Vicksburg voters to get the measure on the ballot, which is around 1,400 signatures.