State Assembly staff are still trying to finish drafting a mayoral-control bill for Rochester. But there's been one major new development: the legislation may let the mayor appoint all nine members of the advisory board that would replace the School Board.

Several weeks ago State Assembly member Joe Morelle, who is helping push the mayoral-control effort, said the bill would call for the mayor to appoint five members of the board and City Council four. Mayor Bob Duffy had wanted to appoint all nine, but Morelle said in February that that wasn't going to happen.

This morning, however, Morelle said that issue "does not appear to be resolved yet." And Morelle said he "could go either way" on that issue. It seems likely, then, that the bill will have the mayor appoint all nine, with City Council confirming the appointments. The bill will also probably dictate that the board contain at least one resident from each of the four quadrants of the city, Morelle said.

Partly offsetting the mayor's appointment power: board members would probably serve a fixed term, rather than at the pleasure of the mayor. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg created an uproar when he removed board members who planned to vote against a measure he wanted.

Morelle says that under the bill in its present form, the board would make policy decisions but not administrative ones. It would not have hiring and firing authority, for example. It's also possible that the bill will mandate additional advisory boards for such areas as special education and education for children whose primary language is not English.

Local supporters of mayoral control had hoped that a bill would be ready by the end of February. Details such as the composition and authority of the board continue to cause delays, Morelle said, and assembly staff members are studying the experience of other mayoral-control cities.

"Rather than put out a bill that needs a lot of changes and creates more frustration and anger," he said, it's better to delay the bill. "I'm still hopeful to be able to push it out in the next couple of weeks," he said.

There doesn't seem to have been much movement in the Senate on a Rochester bill. "We haven't gotten that far yet," Morelle said, but Rochester-area Senator Joe Robach and the Senate leadership have been included in some of the discussions about mayoral control for Rochester, Morelle said.

Robach has seemed resistant to mayoral control, suggesting that the issue be put to a vote in a public referendum. Morelle said this morning that he was "pretty certain" there won't be a referendum.

Until the Assembly's draft is completed, Morelle said, he and Rochester Assembly member David Gantt "will take most of the heat and anger from parents."

"If we're the lightning rods and can help defuse some of the anger by walking people through the bill and what it does," he said, "it will make it easier for the Senate" to support a bill.

And Morelle said he is hopeful that a Rochester bill will be supported by representatives from New York City, where reports say the graduation rate has improved under mayoral control.