FARGO (AP) - The City Commission has changed its mind and decided not to move a Ten Commandments monument off the City Hall mall.

Commissioners on Monday accepted 5,265 signatures from residents who want to keep the marker where it is. They also gave preliminary approval to an initiated ordinance that bars the city from moving any marker or monument that has stood on city property for 40 years or longer.

The city auditor's office still must verify at least 2,850 signatures. Mayor Dennis Walaker called it "a foregone conclusion."

Commissioner Mike Williams cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he thought the ordinance should go to voters.

The commission had voted 3-2 on June 18 to move the Ten Commandments monument and donate it to a private group. Commissioner Tim Mahoney asked that the decision be reconsidered.

Mahoney reversed his vote Monday, so the motion to move the monument failed 3-2. Williams and Linda Coates again voted to move it and Walaker and Brad Wimmer again voted no.

Coates suggested the city create a policy for handling requests from other groups proposing religious monuments on city property.

"If we're going to be in the monument business, we have to do that in a way that is legally without challenge," she said.