Yadira Altamirano is returning to the Lemon Grove City Council as an appointee to serve the remaining two years of a vacant seat.
The 18-year Lemon Grove resident and small business owner previously served on the council for one year after being appointed to finish the term of Matt Mendoza, who resigned in 2019. This time, she is completing the two-year term of former Councilmember Alysson Snow, who was elected mayor in November.
Council interviewed Altamirano, 44, and eight other candidates at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Council then were asked to select their top three choices from a list of applicants, and their selections were tallied by the city manager and city clerk.
Altamirano came out on top with three votes from the four council , and the council then unanimously voted to appoint her.
Application forms asked council contenders if they intend to run in the November 2026 election, and Altamirano was one of only two of the original 11 applicants to answer no. She also did not run to retain her seat after her last appointment.
Each applicant Tuesday was allowed a three-minute opening statement. Altamirano spoke about living in Lemon Grove as a child and ing a city full of shopping centers, beautiful parks and safe streets.
“I Lemon Grove being something that it’s no longer,” she said. “Crime is higher. It’s not as clean as I . Infrastructure needs a lot of help.”
Altamirano said she hopes to make a greater impact than she did during her first term on the council, a time when meetings where held remotely because of the pandemic. Having already served on the council, she also said she would not need much training because she already knew how things operate.
That seemed to resonate with Councilmember Jennifer Mendoza, who later said she appreciated that several applicants had experience with the city at a time when the current council has two new and a new mayor.
Each council member asked applicants about their top concerns with the city, their vision for Lemon Grove, their plans for economic development and examples of when they had worked to build unity among a group of people.
Altamirano said public safety, making the city clean, street repair, community services and better communication with residents were top concerns.
As an example of unity, Altamirano said she volunteered with a PTA and the Mt. Vernon Educational Foundation, was a robotics coach and oversaw about 150 volunteers in a summer softball program with 550 girls, which all required bringing people together, as well as having 20 employees of her own who don’t always agree.
Her ideas for economic development include cleaning up Broadway and creating more attractions to bring people to visit the city.
“La Mesa has a car show,” she said. “They have a big farmers market. We have one, too, but what can we do to make it better? Maybe a Lemon Grove sign, a lemon tree that lights up at night. We need a few things that will bring people here and we need to be ready for them. We need to clean up storefronts.”
Altamirano said her vision for Lemon Grove includes having more community services, especially for youth.
Also interviewed on Tuesday were Kenneth Davies, Robert Holaday, Cody Littleton, Oyuki Littleton, Minola Manson, Robert Rael, Seth Smith and James Stout. Jay Bass and Meredith Levin had originally applied but dropped out.
Five community spoke in favor of Altamirano, one person ed Holaday and seven spoken in favor of Smith, who ran for City Council in November and captured 20% of the votes in a four-way race for two seats.
