Parish Council members on Thursday accepted for consideration a myriad of recommended changes to the parish government’s Home Rule Charter, including among other items, a scaling down of council members from 14 to 11.

The League of Women Voters and Tammany Together introduced recommendations with hopes to gain council approval and place the amendments on the Nov. 4 presidential election ballot. The Home Rule Charter, the parish’s governing document, hasn’t been revised since its 1998 adoption, according to the civic group.

“The committee wants to emphasize that the changes we recommend are not a reflection of anyone now serving on the council, planning and zoning commission or our parish president,” the report said. “St. Tammany’s charter provides us with a roadmap for now and the future … All such documents deserve periodic review and update. We believe the changes we propose will improve the parish’s roadmap.” Parish Council members on Thursday offered little debate on the changes, instead deferring any action to next month’s meeting. Meanwhile, Parish Council chairman Jerry Binder is developing a committee to examine the proposals.

“We need to digest this,” Binder said.

The proposal contains a bevy of changes, including an elimination of five council seats and adding two at-large council members, making the council an 11-seat board.

“Two at-large council members will give everyone in St. Tammany a greater voice and more representation,” the League wrote in the proposal.

In addition, the amendments calls for council members to be term limited to no more than two terms in the same district beginning in 2012. Currently, Parish Council members have no term limits.

Councilman Steve Stefancik, who has served on the council for more than 20 years and is a member of Binder’s committee, said Friday he’s against such a measure.

“I want to make this very clear,” he said. “I’m opposed to term limits, I’ve always been opposed to term limits … I’m of the belief that if I don’t do the work for my constituents they will vote me out tomorrow.”

He padded his argument with historical backing: Every four years roughly half of the parish council members aren’t re-elected anyway, he said.

But last October, 64 percent of parish voters approved term limits for the parish president’s office to three consecutive terms. At that time, Councilman Henry Billiot said, “I would think if the public wants the president to be term limited, the public wants the council to be term limited, too.” He vowed to fight for term limits.

The League of Women Voters agreed. Term limits “ensures that new voices and ideas are heard and that council members will remain citizen legislators.”

Other recommendations include:

• Creation of an independent legal department instead of using the local district attorney’s office as now required by the Louisiana State Constitution. However, parishes with their own Home Rule Charter are allowed to operate independently, the report said.

• Requiring a master planning and zoning plan be reviewed every two years if needed, back by “the force of the law.”

• Consolidation of the parish planning and zoning commissions, now operating as separate boards made of identical members. That move would strip two seats, making the commission a nine-member board instead of 11.

• Promoting the parish chief administrative officer or the assistant CAO to fill the term of parish president if a vacancy occurs. Currently, the council must name an interim parish president within 15 days. Once appointed to the interim position, the CAO cannot run for the seat in an open election. The proposal “ensures that the appointee will be focused on the needs of the parish and not on an upcoming election,” according to the report.

(Reporter Chad Ruiz contributed to this article.)