Earlier this week, the political action committee pushing a plan that would let voters decide if Austin's top decision-maker should be the mayor or continue to be the city manager cleared an important hurdle. Austinites for Progressive Reform – a PAC made up of political insiders and entrepreneurs fighting to give the mayor supreme authority – gathered more than 24,000 signatures. Those signatures were submitted Jan. 11, and on Tuesday the city clerk issued a certificate of approval indicating at least 20,000 of them were from registered voters – the minimum total the city requires for charter amendments to be placed on a ballot. If voters approve the change, City Manager Spencer Cronk will lose not only his power, but also his job. It's a cold reality he addressed publicly for the first time this week in a conversation with the American-Statesman.