Federal prosecutors are recommending that former City-County Councilor Lincoln Plowman receive 6-1/2 years in prison when he is sentenced Thursday afternoon.

A jury in September found him guilty of using his official position to collect $6,000 in exchange for his help in getting zoning approval for a proposed strip club.

Plowman, also a former Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department major, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the attempted extortion conviction and 10 years and a $250,000 fine for the bribery conviction.

Prosecutors used a formula that takes into account his lack of criminal history, among other factors, to arrive at the 6-1/2-year recommendation.

“A sentence of 78 months’ incarceration is sufficient but not greater than necessary to accomplish the pertinent objectives of sentencing … by sending a strong message that public officials, especially those who happen to be law enforcement officers, who abuse their positions of public trust are not above the law,” U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett wrote in the Tuesday filing.

Friends and family of Plowman earlier in November submitted 56 letters of support to Judge Larry McKinney, pleading for leniency and asking that Plowman receive probation rather than a lengthy jail sentence.

A grand jury indicted Plowman in September 2010. From August to December of 2009, the indictment said, Plowman solicited an undercover FBI agent to pay him $5,000 in cash and make a $1,000 campaign contribution in exchange for help with strip club zoning.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced at 2 p.m. in federal court in downtown Indianapolis.