PORTERDALE, Ga. — Porterdale City Council voted Thursday to fill its vacant Post 4 seat through the end of this year with a former city planning committee member.

The council voted unanimously to appoint Jill Minnoia to complete the unexpired term of former longtime councilman Mike Harper, who resigned recently because of health issues.

Council members agreed that only Minnoia expressed interest in being appointed to serve the remain four months in the term.

Minnoia has lived in Porterdale since 2016 and served as a Porterdale Planning and Zoning Committee member from 2017 to 2019.

She has worked more than 20 years as an event manager and 

coordinator for local city governments including the city of Conyers and city of Lilburn. 

Minnoia is a Georgia native and a graduate of Avondale High School in Avondale Estates. 

She told the council that she had seen the city “move forward” and wanted to see it do the same in the future.

Councilman Lowell Chambers urged city officials to have Minnoia legally sworn in as soon as possible.

A fifth member is needed to make sure the council had enough to comprise a quorum so it could set the city’s property tax rate as scheduled Thursday, Aug. 19, he said.

Chambers previously announced he would be absent from the Aug. 19 meeting, while Councilwoman Kay Piper was absent from the Thursday meeting because of illness. 

If Chambers and Piper are absent and Minnoia not sworn in by Aug. 19, only two council members would be left. Three members must be present to constitute a quorum to conduct city business. 

Minnoia has announced she planned to qualify next week to seek election to the Post 4 seat for a full four-year term in the Nov. 2 election.