In the 1970s, the system was changed so that the top vote-getter in the council election automatically became mayor.

After the 1997 election, for example, Democrats Minette Cooper and Dwight Tillery formed a majority coalition on the council with Republicans Charlie Winburn, Phil Heimlich, and Jeanette Cissell.

In 2018, two competing proposals were placed on the ballot to modify the structure of the City Council yet again.

[2] Issue 10 passed with a larger margin of victory, and the City Council returned to two-year terms beginning with the 2021 election.

Damon Lynch III (I): 21,764Leslie Ghiz (R): 19,916Chris Monzel (R): 19,197Barbara W. Trauth (I): 17,480John Connelly (I): 14,047Pete Witte (I): 13,479Terry Deters (I): 11,889John F. Schlagetter (C): 11,420Tom Jones (I): 10,441Samuel T. Britton (I): 9,778Howard H. Bond (I): 8,260Nick Spencer (C): 7,378Marilyn Hyland (I): 5,864Brian Garry (G): 5,504Eric Wilson (I): 2,686Glenn O. Givens Sr. (I): 2,327Larry J. Frazier (I): 2,323