SAN DIEGO -- The city's Chargers task force tonight will consider a plan to extend the period during which the team can exercise an option to get out of its lease.

SOUND OFF Are The Chargers Important To San Diego?

The task force is expected to issue a recommendation to the City Council, which, in turn, will consider the extension in January.

Dec. 1 marked the beginning of the two-month period during which the Chargers can exercise their rights under a 1995 contract with the city to renegotiate or seek to move to another town. That trigger period would be moved to March if the City Council agrees.

Geoff Patnoe, a task force member and executive director of the conservative San Diego County Taxpayers Association, called the idea "a no-brainer."

Moving the time frame "does not limit the city's ability to enforce the existing contract, would not cost the city a dime," and will let the task force complete its work before further moves are made, he said.

The Citizens Task Force on Chargers Issues is charged with determining if there is a feasible way -- fiscally responsible and publicly acceptable -- to keep the team in San Diego. The Chargers want a new stadium.

Patnoe was credited with the idea of pushing back the trigger period, and Mayor Dick Murphy and a pair of City Council members endorsed the idea earlier this month.

At that time, the Chargers rejected the idea, saying the city needed to consider the team's offer to eliminate the trigger and controversial ticket guarantee in exchange for the team being let out of its contract early. The city's guarantee of 60,000 ticket sales per game has cost San Diego more than $30 million since 1997.

But after the City Council shot down that contract renegotiation proposal, the Chargers agreed to move the trigger period.

The team has repeatedly asserted that the conditions already exist to enable it to exercise the trigger clause, which is based on NFL salary restrictions.

The Chargers have 60 days to notify the city if the team believes it has met the trigger threshold for this season, although that is the deadline for which an extension is being explored.

Official notice that the trigger has been met would start a 90-day negotiation period with the city of San Diego, followed by a 180-day period when the Chargers could seek a deal in another town.

San Diego would have 90 days to match any offer presented to the team.