MINNEOLA – Former City Council member Joe Teri, who abruptly resigned this month after city officials said they found almost 28,000 pornographic images on his city-issued laptop computer, wants his old seat back.

Teri was among five candidates to submit their names as candidates for Seat 5 on the City Council.

The city’s qualifying period ended at noon Friday. The winning candidate in the Nov. 4 election will serve the remaining year of the two-year term Teri vacated when he resigned.

“I decided to run because I received many phone calls and people came up to me saying I should not have resigned and to please consider running again for my old seat,” Teri said Friday.

Teri, who had served as Minneola council member since 2003, stepped down Sept. 3 after City Manager Sam Oppelaar confronted him with evidence that he used his city-issued laptop to download pornography, city officials said.

The porn consumed almost 4 gigabytes on the computer’s hard drive, Oppelaar said.

City officials initially said none of the images appeared to involve children or contain illegal material.

However, the city later turned over the images and computer to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s detectives on Friday said they expect to complete their investigation Monday.

Teri said he doesn’t expect the controversy to affect his campaign.

“The ordeal or the incident is irrelevant to them [supporters],” he said.

“What is relevant is the years of steady good work and the contributions I’ve made to the city.”

Teri said he plans to continue arguing that Minneola has to keep taxes low and reduce spending.

“My message is: Don’t spend money we don’t have. Don’t spend money today with the belief that you’re going to have an ever-growing city and tax base,” Teri said.

In the week before resigning, Teri faced criticism by some residents and city staffers for proposing to eliminate the city’s recreation department and cut three firefighter positions to balance the city’s budget without raising the tax rate.

The other candidates vying for Seat 5 include Joseph Saunders, who was appointed by the City Council to temporarily fill the council seat vacated by Teri; Jerry Roach, Brad Southerland, and current City Council member Sue Cordova.

Cordova currently serves on Seat 2 but decided not to seek another two-year term.

On Friday, Cordova said she chose to run for Teri’s seat because “I didn’t want to do another two-year commitment. At this time, with the issues the city is facing, I think it would be good for me and for the residents to stay on the council for another year.”

Cordova said she did not choose to run because Teri entered the contest.

“I had my [qualifying] papers in before he did,” she said.