LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Lafayette Parish voters have decided against dismantling the combined city-parish government that has been in place since 1996.

A ballot measure that would have undone the consolidated government failed Saturday.

City-Parish Council Chairman Kenneth Boudreaux, who supported the separation, said he will now seek to win changes in the current government setup to give the city of Lafayette more autonomy.

— a chief issue in the debate over Saturday’s ballot issue.

“Now that we know deconsolidation is off the table, all we have to do is fix the charter for consolidated government,” said Odon Bacque, a charter commission member who led the pro-consolidation charge.

Leaders may revisit a form of the “Hefner plan,” named for local demographer Mike Hefner. That plan creates five City-Parish Council districts completely from within the city and another four districts consisting of only residents living outside the city.

Under that plan, the five representatives from within the city would then handle issues exclusive to the city, like the Lafayette Utilities System, while all nine council members would vote on parish-wide issues.

Hefner, who worked with the charter commission, said nearly all the precincts across Lafayette Parish voted against deconsolidation with the exception of a small cluster of precincts within the city that backed the split.

Voters outside the city had few incentives to vote for the split, but some observers thought proponents of deconsolidation — who argued the city should be able to control its own destiny — would be able to make an easy sell to city residents.

“It looks like they probably weighed both options and decided to see what we can do to fix this first rather than deconsolidating,” Hefner said.

The City-Parish Council formed a commission last year to explore changes to local government.

The commission voted in April to put the question of whether to split government on the ballot.

Supporters of the split argued the city would be better off on its own. Opponents countered that reverting to separate governments would be costly and that a combined government is needed to move forward on regional issues.