An open Lemon Grove council seat will stay open after leaders deadlock on candidates

An empty seat on the Lemon Grove City Council will stay open for at least a few more weeks after leaders couldn’t agree on who to appoint.

The top candidates are both well-respected members of the community, although each represents a different vision for the East County city. The newest leaders on the council want Lauren Faiai, the widow of Sitivi “Steve” Faiai, whose sudden death over the summer created the vacancy. Their longer-serving colleagues are pushing for Jay Andrew Bass, who has years of experience on the Lemon Grove School District board as well as the city’s planning commission.

The impasse during Tuesday’s public meeting means residents may not have a full council until the next regularly scheduled election late next year.

“It saddens me that we can’t come to a compromise,” Mayor Pro Tem Jennifer Mendoza said from the dais.

Lemon Grove has endured years worth of leadership drama. One former council member got into a fistfight with a businessman. Another faced multiple restraining orders, and the strife has complicated efforts to fix longstanding problems, such as crumbling roads. Voters last year tossed out multiple incumbents in favor of new faces.

That shakeup is why Lemon Grove needs someone already immersed in the city’s inner workings, argued Mendoza and Mayor Alysson Snow. Those council members were also willing to vote for two other applicants with resumes showing local government experience: Joseph Smith, who’s worked for the school district and boosted programming at the recreation center, and Seth Smith, chair of the planning commission.

“It’s critical that we appoint someone on the council who has some institutional knowledge,” Mendoza added.

In contrast, Councilmembers Yadira Altamirano and Jessyka Heredia would only consider one name: Lauren Faiai. Heredia said she’d heard from a wide range of residents who agreed that Faiai offered the best shot at unifying a divided city. Many members of the public who spoke during the meeting similarly praised Faiai’s heart and resiliency, including two of the people applying for the same job.

“Lauren is, again, the only one that’s really a very neutral, nonpartisan person,” Heredia said. “It’s time for the new voices.”

The council voted twice to try and bridge the gap. Each split 2-2. Lemon Grove’s city attorney noted that while the law requires the council fill a vacancy, an appointment does need at least three votes. (Leaders previously balked at calling a special election over worries that the cost — potentially as high as $400,000 — might force the city to cut other projects.)

Council members pledged to revisit the issue at a future meeting.

After the votes, Faiai, a 43-year-old manager of a Sprouts Farmers Market, said she’d again throw her hat into the ring if officials made another run at an appointment.

“I’m at peace with whatever happens,” she said.

The other top candidate, Bass, 66, said in a phone interview Wednesday that he was unsure about re-applying. “I don’t want this to be a further dividing factor for our city.”

The two embraced after the failed votes. Both said they didn’t plan on running for the seat in 2026.

The list of candidates also included Jennifer Renee Hopper, who’s on the board of the East County Chamber of Commerce; Jennifer Morrissey, executive director of the Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation; and Sophia Elena Felix, a recently retired businesswoman.

The eighth candidate, Minola Clark Manson, withdrew her name from consideration during the meeting while simultaneously announcing her candidacy for next year’s council election.