Just about two years ago, local attorney Nick Gradisar approached City Council with the news that a committee to create a "strong mayor" form of government wanted another chance to win voter approval.

At the time, Gradisar argued that a full-time, well-paid mayor was the leader the city needed to build a new prosperity.

"The mayor would run for office with an agenda to get accomplished," he explained. "And voters would ultimately decide if he did the job or not."

Back in 2009, when Gradisar and others had backed a similar ballot question, conservative council members had successfully fought it off.

But this time around a majority of council — including then-Council President Steve Nawrocki — happily welcomed the announcement. It seemed the stage was being set for the city to change direction and city voters agreed, deciding to pick a mayor in November 2018.

"A mayor would be someone in charge, someone that voters could either praise or blame," Nawrocki said. "Maybe it's time we try something new."

So in hindsight, it isn't surprising that on Tuesday, Pueblo voters will decide whether its Gradisar or Nawrocki who gets the first five-year term as Pueblo's new mayor.

After all, they were the first two candidates to announce for the job — Nawrocki in December 2017 and Gradisar a month later.

And as for council, six former or current council members soon jumped into the mayor race as well. Besides Nawrocki, they were Chris Nicoll, Lori Winner, Dennis Flores, Larry Atencio, Ted Lopez, Jr., and Randy Thurston.

Along with Gradisar, who is an elected member of the Pueblo Board of Water Works, they were the best-known of the 35 people who took out candidate paperwork last year, with 16 actually reaching the Nov. 6 ballot.

When that voting was done, no one had a majority vote and the two front-runners to qualify for Tuesday's run-off were Gradisar, with 5,459 votes and Nawrocki, with 5,026 votes.

Winner wasn't far behind with 4,955 votes and Nicoll right behind her with 4, 951. The other 12 candidates had significantly fewer votes.

What may be ironic about the Gradisar-Nawrocki contest is that what began as a contest to provide dynamic new leadership for the city— a mayor with the power to write the city budget and veto council decisions — has settled into an argument over change.

Nawrocki, the executive director of the Senior Resource Development Agency, has repeatedly stressed his eight years on council and his knowledge of city issues.

"It's all about experience and being able to hit the ground running," he said at a recent debate with Gradisar. "I know all of the department heads, I know how the city operates and how to run a large organization that has many departments."

Gradisar has tried to turn Nawrocki's message against him, essentially saying his opponent represents the "status quo," the same city government voters decided to change back in November 2017.

"If you are happy with the way things are going in the city now, one of the choices you have is the immediate past president of City Council," Gradisar responded. "I represent the opportunity to do things differently. I'm not a City Hall insider...I want to offer the citizens of Pueblo a new perspective and new set of eyes on the problems we face."

For his part, Nawrocki touts his support from five current council members -- Nicoll, Ray Aguilera, Ed Brown, Bob Schilling and Mark Aliff -- as well as City Manager Sam Azad.

Gradisar has his supporters, too, such as Alan Hamel, the former director of the water board; former Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace, and former state Rep. Dorothy Butcher.

He also won the endorsement from the city firefighters union.

And Gradisar has held a strong lead in fund-raising from the outset, reporting more than $75,000 in contributions while Nawrocki has reported about half that amount at $31,000.

While city government is considered non-partisan, both Gradisar and Nawrocki are well-known local Democrats, so their contest has split support from those ranks. Both have courted support from local Republicans as well.

But neither has talked about any radical changes in Pueblo government.

Gradisar, for example, has accused Nawrocki and council of being listless in getting the voter-approved street repair fee up and running.

Nawrocki has countered that he will dedicate $1 million a year to "rebrand" Pueblo as the gateway to the Southwest — a step he sees as energizing tourism and the economy.

On perhaps the most contentious issue of the past two years, both have given cautious support to ending the city's reliance on Black Hills Energy for electric power. An initial feasibility study released last week said city ratepayers could have substantial savings over the next 20 years but it could cost as much as $334 million to acquire needed assets from Black Hills.

Nawrocki said he'd like to host a town hall meeting about whether to go forward, given the costs, while Gradisar said he'd go to the next phase — a more detailed analysis of costs and savings.

The new mayor will get an additional power — to appoint a deputy mayor. In a recent interview, Nawrocki said he wanted a deputy who reflected the diversity of the city, such as a woman and possibly a "woman of color."

That prompted his critics to say he was considering his wife, former state Sen. Angela Giron — which Nawrocki has publicly denied.

"They must be getting desperate," he said last week.

Gradisar, for his part, had to fend off criticism last summer from Nicoll about the years he served as Pueblo County public trustee. He was among 10 county trustees statewide asked to resign by Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2012 over complaints.

In Gradisar's case, it was that he'd put the trustee office in a building he owned and paid himself rent.

Gradisar said he'd done nothing improper, adding, "We'll let the voters of Pueblo decide who they want to be mayor."

And that's what they will do Tuesday.

proper@chieftain.com