Council Member Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) is preparing to submit a bill to the Council that would eliminate the public advocate’s office, according to Council sources.

The legislation, now under review by Council staffers involved with bill drafting, would likely come before the Council sometime this summer. If passed, aon the matter could go before the voters as soon as the November general election.

If voters approve the referendum, the matter would then need to be reviewed by the Department of Justice. Almost certainly, that would mean the office would stay in place at least through 2013, allowing the winner of this fall’s election to serve one term in office.

The news comes one week after the Council adopted a budget that would slash funding to the public advocate’s office by 40 percent, a move that outraged the office’s current occupant, Betsy Gotbaum, as well as the four candidates seeking to replace her, Council Members Eric Gioia (D-Queens) and Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) civil rights attorney Norman Siegel and former Public Advocate Mark Green.

(Also potentially on the Council agenda: a referendum to establish independent funding for the office being worked on by de Blasio, with candidates beginning to snipe at each other this week over responsibility for the funding cut.)

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