By Miriam Raftery
November 8, 2019 (Lemon Grove) – At a special meeting last night, Lemon Grove’s City Council voted to fill the vacancy left by Matt Mendoza’s resignation through appointment. Applications will be accepted starting Monday, Nov. 11 through Thursday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
A Council applicant informational forum will be held on Wed. Nov. 13 at 5 p.m. Applications will be included by Nov. 27 in the agenda packet for the Council’s Tues. Dec 3 meeting.
Interviews with applicants and appointments will be done in open session to assure transparency. Each applicant will be allowed a three minute statement and Council will have two minutes to ask questions and receive responses. Councilmembers will write their top choices, up to three, in order and provide those to the City Clerk to tally.
If appointed at the Dec. 3 meeting, the new Councilmember will be seated at the Dec. 17 meeting.
Council opted to fill the vacancy by appointment rather than by a special election, which staff estimated would have cost voters $200,000 to $300,000 – a large expenditure for the cash-strapped city already facing spending reserves and asking voters to approve a sales tax increase on the 2020 ballot.
Mendoza resigned Monday after reportedly moving to Florida for his job with Boeing.
The vacancy comes at a critical time for Lemon Grove, which faces serious fiscal issues as well as pending litigation, as ECM previously reported.