The city of Lithonia was set to pick an acting mayor on Wednesday after being without a leader for a week.

Tonya Peterson, who was mayor pro tem, quit her council seat on Oct. 15 when she qualified for the Nov. 18 Special Election to replace Joyce McKibben.

McKibben, was recalled by voters on Sept. 30 after nine months in office.

City council members were set to pick one of the four remaining members - Doreen Carter, Linda Pruett, Marcus Lloyd and Kathleen De Cocq - to act as mayor until the election is completed.

Carter said Monday that council members and the city clerk have been keeping the city running.

"Having a clerk in the office now really helps," she said.

Carter said council members will take the vote at a regularly scheduled work session that begins at 7 p.m. at city hall on Main Street in downtown Lithonia.

Peterson, 39, and McKibben, 52, who also qualified for the race, are among six people vying to finish the three years left on McKibben's four-year term. Nothing in the city's charter prevents recalled mayor from running again.

The other candidates on Nov. 18 ballot are Jackie Harbin, who served 14 years on the city council; attorney Deborah Jackson, who served 18 months as Lithonia's city attorney; Rhonda Peek, who ran for mayor twice before; and Larry Miller, who served two years on the council.

The candidate who wins the most votes on Nov. 18 will take office.

Harbin, 59, a longtime city resident, was the last-place finisher in the four-person race for mayor that McKibben won in November 2007.

Jackson, 55, has lived in the city for two years. She is an interim city attorney and was a consultant on the city's Livable Centers Initiative project. She is a certified mediator with the Georgia Supreme Court and a juvenile pro tem judge.

Miller, 58, is a Gwinnett County schoolteacher. He served two years on the City Council but lost his re-election bid in November 2007. He has lived in Lithonia for 26 years.

This is Peek's third run for mayor.

Last November, McKibben edged her for the seat by two votes.

Peek, a 42-year-old healthcare professional, also ran for the seat in 2003. She has been a resident of the city since 2002.

Peterson is a property manager. She was elected to the City Council in November 2005.