This article is part of Folsom Times’ 2026 Coffee with Candidates series, featuring one-on-one conversations with candidates in key local races. Through video interviews and accompanying digital coverage, candidates respond to a series of questions developed with input from the community, giving voters an opportunity to hear directly from those seeking office on issues important to the region.
In this segment, we sit down with Sarah Aquino, incumbent Folsom City Councilmember for District 3. Aquino was first elected to the council in 2018 and reelected in 2022, serving as mayor in 2020 and 2025. Before joining the council, she served four years on the Folsom Cordova Unified School District Board of Education and previously served as a Folsom library commissioner and chair of the Folsom Chamber of Commerce board. A life and health insurance broker, Aquino also works two nights a week at a local restaurant. She currently serves on regional boards including the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District and Sacramento Placerville Transportation Corridor JPA.
Q: Folsom continues to grow, particularly south of Highway 50. While the city also faces aging infrastructure and maintenance needs in established areas, do you believe Folsom’s infrastructure is keeping pace with its growth? What would you do differently, if anything, and would you ever support slowing or delaying development until necessary infrastructure is in place?
Aquino: So when you talk about infrastructure, I think you have to talk about the more established parts of the city and then the developing parts of the city. So yes, we have a lot of aging infrastructure north of Highway 50, and maintaining that, replacing that is a challenge. But it’s not much different than your household or my household. There are a lot of things that I need to do at my house and a lot of things I want to do at my house, but the list of needs and wants far exceeds the funds available.
And so we have to prioritize, and then we slowly chip away, and that is what the city of Folsom has to do also. So, for example, right now in Empire Ranch, on a day like today when it’s sunny and warm outside, you will see crews out there sealing the cracks in the pavement, in the asphalt, to kind of extend the life of those streets before we can come through and pave again.
So that’s the type of work that we are doing north of 50 to maintain and replace our infrastructure. South of 50, where the growth is happening, single-family homes always come first. That’s just the way it is. Once the single-family homes start to come in, then the schools come, the parks come, the fire stations, the retail. And so there’s always a little bit of a lag, which can be frustrating to people because there aren’t those services there.
But we are starting to deliver those services. Eventually there will be 10 parks south of 50. We have one delivered so far, Prospector Park. We are working on the second one right now, Jack Rabbit Hill Park. We’ll break ground for that early next year. We have one fire station. A second will come. There is some retail there. More will come.
So again, infrastructure kind of differs whether you’re in a more established part of the neighborhood or more established part of the city or a newer part of the city. As far as, you know, are we doing enough to keep pace? Well, we would always like to be doing more. The challenge is there is no windfall of revenue coming our way. The citizens of Folsom have told us loud and clear that they want us to live within our means, use the money that we have. And so that’s what we’re doing.
So again, all we can do is prioritize, chip away and use our financial resources as responsibly and as efficiently as we can.
In terms of slowing down development, we have some control of that, but not total control. So, for example, everything south of Highway 50, that land is entitled. Those folks have legal rights to develop that property. It’s going to happen.
But some of the things that the city can control, for example, we recently entered into a contract to buy some surplus property that Lakeside Church is wanting to sell. They got 12 bids for that property. One was from a single-family home developer, 10 were from multifamily home developers, and one was from the city of Folsom.
That land is going to be developed. If one of those multifamily developers had bought that property, you would see apartments there in the next two years. But because the city is in contract to buy that, we can take our time, hopefully wait for some more infrastructure to develop, such as the Empire Ranch Road interchange, such as a middle and high school built in Folsom Ranch to take some of the pressure off the middle and high schools north of 50.
And then we can allow time for robust public input to decide exactly what we want to be built there.
Q: Traffic congestion remains a major concern, particularly around East Bidwell Street and Highway 50. What do you believe the city can realistically do to improve traffic over the next four years? And where do projects such as the Empire Ranch Road interchange, Alder Creek Parkway, and improvements to existing roads rank among your priorities?
Aquino: So, traffic is definitely one of the top concerns I hear about from residents. There are some short-term solutions and some longer-term solutions.
Obviously, Empire Ranch Road interchange is the number one priority for the council. We are currently in the design phase for that. It will take about two years. The design phase is fully funded. The construction phase is not fully funded. And so we’re doing everything we can to pursue federal and state dollars to ensure that that infrastructure gets built.
Also, things like the pedestrian overcrossing that will eventually be built to go from where the Sutter Health building is being built on East Bidwell over to the Palladio. That way, if you just want to cross over East Bidwell, you don’t have to press the pedestrian walk signal and stop traffic, but you can go right up and over the street.
Alder Creek Parkway, the expansion and widening of Prairie City Road, those things are the responsibility of the developers who are developing that property. So as development happens in the Folsom Plan Area, Folsom Ranch, as that development moves toward Prairie City Road, those roads will be built out, they will be expanded, they will be improved.
You know, the funny thing about traffic is nobody likes it, but nobody wants to get out of their own car. They want everybody else to get out of their car. And so, you know, I think we just have to be realistic about the solutions.
I’m losing my train of thought here. Oh, what I was going to say is, I once heard a mayor talk about that traffic is like cholesterol. If you don’t have any, you die. So traffic around the holidays is a good thing. It means people are going out shopping. They’re spending their money. They’re generating sales tax revenue for the city.
But yes, we realize that we have a problem. When you’re getting off Highway 50 during the commute hours at East Bidwell Street, it’s a problem. The traffic is backed up. When you are trying to go from south of 50 to north of 50 in the morning when people are trying to get their kids to school, it’s a challenge.
So we have to continue to pursue, I think, creative solutions. One of the things that I’ve championed while I’ve been on the City Council is a roundabout-first policy. So obviously this applies mostly to the new growth areas. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to build a roundabout before anything else. It just means that we are going to consider a roundabout before we consider a traffic signal or before we consider a stop sign.
So, as some of this development happens and these roads are installed in Folsom Ranch, you are going to start to see more roundabouts.
The other thing that I have championed and that I’m happy to report has recently been installed is four stoplights on Natoma Street that have a flashing yellow arrow that allows you to turn left when it is safe, when the oncoming traffic is not there, rather than having to wait for a green arrow.
And these are things that I have seen in my own personal travels around the country. Last year when I came back from a trip to Tucson, Arizona, that was one of the things I reported out at a council meeting, is this is a big city and they are doing this at really, really big intersections. City of Folsom, we can do this too. Our drivers will rise to the challenge.
Q: Do you believe new development should pay for the full cost it creates for the city, including roads, parks, public safety and other services, as well as the long-term maintenance and eventual replacement of that infrastructure? Would you support adjusting development and permit fees if studies show current fees don’t fully recover those costs?
Aquino: So, development impact fees is something that the city does review regularly, and just within the past year or two at the most, we have adjusted the fees. We do have development paying for itself. I think we all agree that it should.
The other thing that we’ve started doing is accounting for public safety costs in our CFDs, or community facilities districts, so that there is money coming in in perpetuity to pay for those services.
Q: Folsom faces increasing costs for infrastructure and city services while also having to maintain a balanced budget. Would you support asking voters to consider another local sales tax or other revenue measure in the future? If not, how would you address the city’s long-term infrastructure and service needs without additional taxes?
Aquino: So, city residents have been pretty clear twice now that they do not want a new sales tax measure. They want us to live within our means, and we respect that. And so, as I said earlier, we are taking the revenue that we have and we are prioritizing that and spending that as efficiently and as effectively as possible.
About 60% of the city’s general fund, which you can think of as like our main checking account, about 60% of that comes from property tax and sales tax. Property tax growth is increasing steadily, especially south of Highway 50. Where it’s slowed a little bit and kind of almost leveled off is north of 50 because of interest rates for homes. People aren’t selling their homes and moving on maybe at the rate that they have in the past.
But property tax rate is still growing, albeit modestly. Sales tax, on the other hand, used to kind of grow at the same rate as property tax, but the sales tax rate has basically flattened. And although we have more people in the city than we did five, 10, 15 years ago, the price and the spending per capita is down.
And when you think about, you know, this idea that people now like to give experiences a lot of time instead of goods, experiences don’t generate sales tax revenue. So, an example of that, my son for his 19th birthday, he didn’t want a new television. He didn’t want a new bike or an iPhone. He wanted to go skydiving. So, we paid for him and his buddy to go skydiving. That doesn’t generate any sales tax revenue.
So again, a city is no different than a household. At my household, I want to remodel the bathrooms. I want to relandscape my front yard. I need to replaster my pool. The list of needs and wants far exceeds the funds available. And so we prioritize, and the city of Folsom is no different.
I don’t think there is an appetite in the city to explore a sales tax measure at this time. I think if we do explore one years down the road, I think what would be more palatable to the general public is a half-cent sales tax rather than a full cent and put a sunset date on it. Say that this is a 10-year sales tax. We’re going to do as many infrastructure projects as we can, and then when we’re done, we’re done. And if at that time we want to come back to you and say, “Do you want to re-up?” You can answer that question at that time.
Q: Residents in established areas of Folsom frequently raise concerns about aging streets, parks, trails and other infrastructure. How should the city balance maintaining and improving existing neighborhoods with spending on infrastructure needed to serve newer development? What should be fixed first when there isn’t enough money to do everything?
Aquino: So with the city of Folsom, you have to remember that we have different pots of money, and the new development is being paid for by the development. And there are specific pots of money for that.
One of the questions that we get is, well, how can you be building a new park, for example, Benevento Park next to Vista del Lago High School, when you don’t have enough money to maintain the existing parks? And that is because that money comes from different pots, and those pots are legally restricted.
So, for example, in the case of Benevento Park next to Vista del Lago, the money that’s being used to pay for that park was generated by development impact fees that were paid by the homebuilders every time they pulled a building permit to build houses in that neighborhood.
Those fees are obviously eventually passed on to the homebuyer. And so the law says that we have to use the money in that pot to pay for a park that benefits the people who paid the fee.
And so that’s how we can pay to build a park like Benevento. As far as replacing Castle Park or doing the maintenance on the other parks that we need to have happen, that money comes out of the general fund, and that is where the challenge is.
So last year we had to make some difficult decisions to cut some ongoing expenses from the general fund. We temporarily browned out a fire engine, for example, that just came back into service the other day. We cut some staff, not just vacant positions, but actual real positions. Four or five people lost their jobs, but we had to cut that ongoing spending in order to get expenditures below revenue so that we do have a little bit of money left over every month to do the maintenance that needs to be done.
The other thing is, you know, we’re trying to think proactively. For example, we just have been putting a new roof on the library. Is it a lot of money? Yes. Could we patch it, maybe get a couple years out of it? Perhaps. But you also have to think long term.
If the roof fails at the library and the collection inside gets damaged, that is going to be far more expensive to replace in the long run than just biting the bullet and fixing the roof now. So these are the kind of decisions that we’re making.
We hired a new city manager about 18 months ago, and the number one reason we hired him is because of his strength with regard to financial matters. So I think we are headed in the right direction. But again, the city of Folsom is no different than your household or my household. There are limited funds. We prioritize the way those funds are spent.
Q: As Folsom’s population and developed area continue to grow, what should the city be doing to ensure police, fire and emergency medical services keep pace? Do you believe current staffing and funding are adequate? And if not, how would you pay for additional resources?
Aquino: So, public safety is the number one priority of the council. It is the number one priority for me. Police and fire together account for about 50% of general fund expenditures.
So, would we like to have more police officers? Absolutely. The number one responsibility of the Police Department is patrol. That is responding to the calls that come into dispatch. But very, very high priority for Folsom residents and for me personally is traffic enforcement, and that includes e-bike enforcement these days.
And so we are fortunate that we still have a traffic unit. We have officers on motorcycles who are dedicated to enforcing the traffic. But would we like to have twice as many or three times as many? Absolutely.
The city of Citrus Heights recently, in order to afford a salary increase for their officers, they disbanded their traffic unit and sent those officers back to patrol because they eliminated some vacant positions.
So I’m pretty proud that the city of Folsom is able to maintain our traffic unit. But would we like to have more? Absolutely.
But I think our officers are doing an incredible job with the resources they have. We have an incredible problem-oriented policing team that tries to deal with issues proactively before they become problems and adversely affect our quality of life.
We also hired Adam Green as our police chief in December. He came from the city of Sacramento. He is outstanding. We are very, very happy with him. So I’m very happy with the direction that our Police Department is headed, and I’m proud to have the support of the Folsom Police Officers Association in this race.
Likewise with the Fire Department. As I said, we recently had to brown out a fire engine because we couldn’t afford to staff it. Luckily, that engine came back into service on September 6.
We also have a new fire chief. He is an Empire Ranch resident. He retired from a different agency, and we were able to recruit him to come be our interim chief when our previous chief retired, and then he has stayed on to become our permanent chief.
One of the things that we have done under the leadership of Chief Solak is we recently approved the transition to what we call a single-role position. And so historically we’ve had three ambulances, and those ambulances have been staffed with firefighter EMTs or firefighter paramedics.
Well, as of September 1 or so, two of those three ambulances are now going to be staffed with one EMT and one paramedic, not firefighter EMTs and firefighter paramedics. Those people on the ambulances, they are basically doing advanced lifesaving and they are transporting folks to the hospitals, and so they don’t need to be firefighters.
And by hiring EMTs and paramedics rather than firefighter EMTs and firefighter paramedics, we can save some money on salary and benefits. And it is that savings that allowed us to bring back Engine 39, which is in Empire Ranch in my district.
So I am very, very confident in the leadership we have in the Folsom Police Department and Fire Department. I think we are definitely headed in the right direction, and it’s a great place to work. And I think we’re going to have a lot of success recruiting some new hires, some lateral hires, because it’s a great place to work right now in the Folsom Police and Fire departments.
Q: Housing remains one of the more difficult issues facing California cities. Within the authority Folsom still has under state law, what kind of housing growth do you believe is appropriate for Folsom? Do you believe the city currently has the right balance of apartments, higher-density housing and single-family neighborhoods? And where should future housing be concentrated?
Aquino: So, one of the most frequent questions I get from residents is why are so many apartment buildings going up? And this is not just happening in Folsom. It is happening throughout the state, and you have to understand why.
And that is because every eight years we go through a new housing cycle. And what happens is the state of California figures out how much housing we will need for the next eight years, and they divvy up that number in between the different regions in the state.
And so obviously we’re part of the Sacramento region. From there, the leaders in the Sacramento region divvy up that number and give each jurisdiction what is considered our fair share of housing.
So currently we’re in the housing cycle that goes from 2021 to 2029. The city of Folsom was given 6,363 units. We don’t build housing, but our requirement under state law is to ensure that enough land is zoned to accommodate those 6,363 units.
The state also says that you have to build housing, or at least zone land for housing, for all different income levels. And as part of that 6,300 number, we have to have land zoned for 3,567 units of affordable housing.
The state Legislature, in all their wisdom, has said that only land zoned to at least 30 units per acre qualifies as low income. Thirty units to the acre, that means apartments.
And so, you know, we have to comply with these state mandates. Again, we don’t build housing, but we have to ensure that enough land is zoned for the housing.
Now, I think it is a priority. I know it is a priority for this council because we have given this direction to staff. We would like to see more of what you call that missing middle housing.
We have single-family homes, but it’s very tough to find one of those for under $500,000 in Folsom, which is a pretty expensive starter home for most people. And then we have a lot of apartments.
What we don’t have are condos, townhomes, smaller single-family homes that maybe cost $300,000 or $350,000. Something that my kids, when they graduate from college, work for a little bit, maybe get married, that they can afford as their starter home. And so that is something that we would like to see more of.
We have an example of that in the last year where Folsom sold very cheaply some land to Habitat for Humanity. We were able to reimburse our general fund from the housing fund. And so those five lots in the Historic District resulted in 10 single-family homes for sale for new families. And so we would like to see more of that.
The other thing is, it’s, you know, been covered a lot lately on social media, is the land that we’re purchasing from Lakeside Church. One of the things — and again, we’ll have an opportunity for robust public input — but one of the things that I can envision as a mother of a son who went to Folsom Lake College is to create kind of a college-type atmosphere in that part of the city, a college district, if you will.
And so maybe on that area of land that we’re going to purchase from Lakeside, maybe it becomes a mixed-use development with some student housing, a late-night coffee shop, some casual eateries, maybe a big green space where kids can go out and throw the Frisbee or whatever in between classes, maybe intramurals are hosted out there.
And so I think we need, you know, we need housing for all different incomes. We need it for different ages.
And the other thing that I have been focused on for the past year or two is housing for different abilities. We have a very large population in the Folsom Cordova school district of students with special needs, particularly with autism. And those students grow up to be adults with special needs. They want to live on their own and independently just like my kids do.
And so one of the things that I’ve been doing is talking with Alta Regional, which is a provider of services for special-needs individuals, to find out how we can provide housing for folks with special needs. And so that’s something that we’re also pursuing in the city.
Q: Folsom residents value the city’s parks, trails and open spaces, neighborhoods, and overall sense of community. While issues such as e-bikes, homelessness, code enforcement and neighborhood safety continue to generate concerns, which quality of life issues do you believe require greater attention from City Hall? And what specifically would you do about them?
Aquino: Well, I would say the number one quality of life issue I hear about lately are e-bikes. And just last night at the September 8 council meeting, we had two items on the agenda discussing e-bikes.
I will tell you that if there were a perfect solution, every city in the country would be doing it right now. There is not a perfect solution. So we are trying to find a way to kind of curb the unsafe, dangerous behavior by some while not taking away the rights of people who are riding safely and responsibly.
So we are crafting an ordinance. You know, it’s not perfect. It is a work in progress, but we’re hoping that that will provide some relief and also give law enforcement a tool in their toolbox to deal with some of this unsafe behavior.
As a member of the City Council, I feel a tremendous responsibility to ensure that this city is clean and safe and welcoming for all. And that is why I spend so much time picking up trash along the side of the road.
It’s why I spent a year as a crossing guard for students walking to Alder Creek Elementary School. It’s why I spent many, many nights on top of the parking garage in the Historic District trying to be an adult presence to deter some rowdy behavior that was happening up there and disrupting the quality of life in Historic Folsom.
So one of the things that I try to do is just to be really accessible and responsive to residents, and if they are having issues, then I encourage them to reach out to me so we can try to find a solution.
That goes not just for residents of District 3, but all residents in the city of Folsom. And folks are welcome to contact me anytime. My cell phone number, I’m going to give it to you right now, is 916-798-5380. You are welcome to call or text me anytime about any city issue.
Q: What should Folsom be doing to attract employers, restaurants, retail and other businesses that strengthen the city’s economy and generate revenue? At the same time, what could City Hall do better to support existing locally owned businesses?
Aquino: So, I call Iron Point Road the semiconductor corridor of the region. Obviously, we’ve got Intel and Micron. The last couple years, we welcomed Samsung and Qualcomm. And the thing that we consistently hear from those tech businesses who locate in Folsom is that they are here because of our very deep talent pool, and obviously that stems from Intel.
So we are thrilled to hear that Intel is not going to sell their campus. They’re going to be here hopefully for the long term.
But when you talk about economic development, I think the number one thing the city can do is build a city where employees want to live. That is what attracts employers. And I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that. There’s always room for improvement, but those are the things that we’re focused on every day.
We’re also becoming the health care hub of the region. We’ve got all four major health systems in the region currently building here, and so lots of opportunities for jobs coming our way.
As far as attracting, you know, restaurants and retail and that sort of thing, part of it is streamlining our permit process, making it as easy as possible for people to open a business, to build out their space, to do those tenant improvements or whatever needs to be done.
And so we’re constantly focused on ways to try to improve the experience in the Community Development Department. That’s something our city manager is very attuned to.
You also mentioned, and one of the things that I think is really important, is not just attracting new businesses but helping those businesses that are already here.
And so one of the things that I did when I was first elected to the council — I was elected citywide, but in 2022 I was elected to District 3 — and so I sent a letter to every single business within my district.
That resulted in a phone call from a vice president at Green Acres, and they were looking for a way to expand their parking capacity so that they could have employees parking on the street, which would leave more room for their customers to park in the parking lot, especially during those nice spring and summer months and fall months when everybody wants to go to Green Acres and buy all their plants.
And so I was able to get the traffic engineer and the traffic sergeant out to Green Acres to figure out, OK, this is an area we can expand, you know, some parking. You could safely, you know, put spaces here and still allow people ingress and egress to your parking lot and all that sort of stuff.
So those are the types of things we’re trying to do to help our existing employers have their businesses thrive.
Last year when I was the mayor, I led an effort to do outreach to our top 25 sales tax producers. I can’t tell you in which order the sales tax producers are because that is proprietary information, but as you can imagine, Costco is definitely in the top 25.
And so the city manager and I went out to Costco. We met with the general manager and some of his team. And again, they had the same kind of questions about parking and wanted to expand.
So we were able to go back to our city staff and work out some options for them, which the ball is then in their court and they can decide whether to do it or not.
But we are very focused on economic development. We do have a great relationship with Choose Folsom, which is the umbrella organization over the Chamber of Commerce, the Tourism Bureau and the Economic Development Corporation.
And while they have historically been the economic development arm for the city, some of the direction that the council has given to the new city manager is that we want to be more proactive in doing our own economic development and not just relying on Choose Folsom.
So again, it’s a great partnership, but there are things that the city can do on our own, and we’ve started to do those.
Q: If elected, what would be your three highest priorities during your term? And four years from now, what measurable results should voters use to determine whether you were successful?
Aquino: So, in no particular order, I would say delivery of amenities south of Highway 50. In four years, we should have a couple more parks. We should be planning for our second fire station, hopefully planning or have a library annex out there. So just continuing to deliver the amenities that have been promised to those residents.
Secondly, we should be out of the design phase for Empire Ranch and moving on to construction and hopefully well on our way with construction.
And third thing, and this is maybe a little bit in the weeds just because of the nature of my job, but I have been sounding the horn every time I have the opportunity. I would like to see the city change the way that we offer health insurance to our employees, moving to a self-funded, reference-based pricing program.
I won’t go into what that exactly means, but it is the only measurable way for the city to save money on our health insurance benefits.
And if we can do that, not only could we offer better benefits to our employees, maybe in the form of reduced copays, reduced contributions to the premium, but we will have extra money that we could then put toward increased salaries to attract more employees.
We could use that for infrastructure and maintenance of our parks and our roadways and that sort of thing.
So again, that one is a little bit geeky for people who are not in the insurance industry, but it is something that is very important to me, and I’ve had a lot of conversations with the city manager and our HR folks about this, and we are starting to see some traction there.
Q: In closing, is there an important issue facing Folsom that we haven’t asked you about or something about your candidacy that you want voters to know? This is also your opportunity to discuss your qualifications, endorsements or community support, and to tell voters why you believe you are the best choice to represent your district on the Folsom City Council.
Aquino: Well, first I want to thank Adam and Bill for doing these interviews. This is an incredible public service and an opportunity for people to be informed. So, thank you guys very much.
I have put my heart and soul into serving the residents of Folsom for the past eight years, and I have tried to set the bar of what it means to be accessible and responsive to residents.
It doesn’t mean we’re going to agree on every issue, but if you reach out to me, I’m going to respond and I’m going to do my best to help you. And I think there are countless examples of that.
I’ve also tried to be just a good source of factual, unbiased information, and I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for people to participate in their government.
I post the agenda for every council meeting on Folsom Chat, Folsom Politics, on my own political Facebook page, and I always try to call out items that I think will be of particular interest to members of the public.
So I think one of the things that is unique to me on the council now and among the candidates is I have lived in Sacramento County for 50 years. My family moved from San Diego to Sacramento County in August of 1976. I have never left. I’m kind of a homebody. I stayed and went to Sac State.
And so I have a lot of really strong regional relationships. I can pick up the phone and pretty much call, you know, anybody in town. And so I think that is unique among the council.
And I just, I love serving on the City Council. I consider it an honor and a pleasure, and it’s a responsibility I take very, very seriously.
So I hope to earn your vote. You can learn more about me at sarahaquino.com. And again, my cell phone number if you want to reach out is 916-798-5380. Thanks.
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