Members of Folsom City Council held their last regular meeting of 2023 Tuesday night which concluded with the voting and appointing of roles of Mayor and Vice Mayor for the year to come. Folsom Charter sections 2.03 and 2.05 establish the selection of the Mayor and Vice Mayor by the City Council.

Council members voted Mike Kozlowski as Folsom’s Mayor and Sarah Aquino for Vice Mayor for 2024. Over the past year, Rosario Rodriguez has held the role of Mayor for the City of Folsom. YK Chalamcherla has served the position of Vice Mayor for the past year. 

“I am grateful to serve as the City of Folsom’s mayor, and I appreciate the Council’s trust in me. I’m honored to serve such a great community. I look forward to working with our Council and community members to make Folsom an even better place,” said Kozlowski. “The year ahead promises both opportunities and challenges, especially when it comes to addressing a projected budget deficit with more costs and service demands than we have revenue. I’m committed to leading alongside my fellow Councilmembers as we work with our community to address the funding gap.”

According to his City of Folsom profile, Kozlowski was first elected to the Folsom City Council in 2018 and was chosen by his colleagues to serve as mayor for the first time in 2021. He is active in several statewide school construction and energy conservation groups, coaches track and field for Vista del Lago High School, and is a certified youth coach with USA Track & Field.

Kozlowski is a passionate architect and designer, and a pragmatic project manager. He has designed projects for small business owners, national retailers, school districts, and individual homeowners. Kozlowski is an account executive for Johnson Controls and provides planning, design, and project management services for energy conservation projects. He frequently lectures on green building and project management topics.

Kozlowski has served as a City of Folsom utility commissioner, a board member of the Vista Athletic Boosters, the Heritage Preservation League of Folsom, and as chairman of the campaign for Measure G (passed by voters in 2014) that is bringing facility improvements to Folsom schools.

Kozlowski and his family have called Folsom home since 2005. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois, and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. Kozlowski and his wife Kim have been married for 26 years and have three children.

Aquino was first elected to the city council in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022. She was chosen by her colleagues to serve as Vice Mayor in 2019, Mayor in 2020, and Vice Mayor in 2021, according to her city of Folsom profile. Prior to her election to the Council, Aquino served four years as a member of the Board of Education for the Folsom Cordova Unified School District.

Aquino is the city’s representative on the Folsom/El Dorado County JPA, the Sacramento-Placerville Transportation Corridor JPA, the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District, and the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District where she serves as Vice Chair.  She also chairs the Citizens’ Advisory Committee for Folsom State Prison and California State Prison, Sacramento. She is a past chair of the Folsom Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, former Folsom Library commissioner, three-time PTA president at Russell Ranch Elementary, and former board member of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District Education Foundation.

Aquino is a licensed life and health insurance agent and runs her family’s insurance agency. She grew up in Fair Oaks, attended public schools in the San Juan Unified School District, and graduated from California State University, Sacramento. She enjoys gardening, golfing, reading, and hosting parties for friends and neighbors.

Her husband, John, is a physical education and adaptive physical education teacher. They have been married 23 years and have two children in college and one very spoiled labradoodle.

The next regular meeting for the Folsom City Council will be January, 9, 2024.