Yesterday, Erik Sten and Randy Leonard fired what some have called the opening salvo in the charter review campaign—which, GAWD, hasn’t officially even started yet—by challenging Mayor Potter’s ballot language.

Potter responded by partially conceding. He’s keeping the ballot title and question the same, but his staff has changed the summary slightly in order “to help clarify more of what the change of government would do” and “address the concerns raised by Commissioners Sten and Leonard.”

Here’s what Sten and Leonard proposed:

This measure changes the form of the City’s government to consolidate executive and administrative authority with the Mayor and the Chief Administrative Officer. Currently, the City Council and the Mayor share in managing the executive, administrative, and legislative functions of the City. This measure would give the Mayor and the Chief Administrative Officer exclusive authority over executive and administrative functions, and limit the Council’s responsibility to exclusively legislative and quasi-judicial functions. As in the current form of government, the Mayor would remain a voting member of the Council.

And here’s the mayor’s new version:

The measure changes the structure of city government adopted in 1913. For the past 94 years, City Council members and Mayor have shared all executive, legislative, quasi-judicial and administrative functions. The measure distributes executive and administrative functions to Mayor and legislative and quasi-judicial functions to Council. The Mayor remains a voting member of Council, but does not have veto power. The Mayor prepares the budget, distributes work among offices, hires and discharges most employees. Council adopts the budget and strategic plans, and exercises legislative oversight through investigations and hearings.

The measure authorizes Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to manage and coordinate city operations, administration and personnel, under supervision of the Mayor. The Mayor hires the CAO, subject to Council confirmation. The Mayor may fire the CAO for lack of performance.

Bureau directors are currently hired by individual Commissioners. The measure transfers responsibility for performance, including hiring and firing of bureau directors, to the Mayor.