Who is Sacramento County’s newest supervisor? Meet Rosario Rodriguez, former Folsom mayor
On Jan. 7, four generations of Rosario Rodriguez’s family stood in the Sacramento County’s chambers as she began her first day on the Board of Supervisors.
The love for her family was clear as her son read the oath of office in English and her mother, reading it aloud in Spanish.
Rodriguez spent 269 days campaigning for this day, and in her first day remarks, she extended gratitude to her family.
“I love my family,” Rodriguez said. “I owe them.”
Rodriguez represents District 4 on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, which encompasses Citrus Heights, Folsom, Orangevale, Antelope, Rio Linda, Elverta, Gold River, Rancho Murieta, North Highlands, Carmichael, Foothill Farms and Fair Oaks. She is currently the only woman serving on the board.
Who is Rosario Rodriguez?
A daughter of Mexican immigrants, her parents settled in San Francisco in the 1960s from Tarimoro in the state of Guanajuato. Rodriguez said the two embody the American Dream. They were self made, became homeowners and helped her and her sisters through college. She can’t recall either of them calling out sick. They both taught Rodriguez and her sisters to be hardworking. Rodriguez said she is a reflection of her parents.
“My father was a janitor. My mom worked in upholstery. But somehow they did it,” Rodriguez said. “They were good people, very honest. And they taught us a lot about being true to yourself.”
Rodriguez considers herself a city girl. She was born and raised in San Francisco and thought she would never leave the city.
Love changed that.
In 2005, she met Paul Hayes. The two fell in love and moved in together. When Hayes got a job in Woodland, Rodriguez packed up and moved several counties away.
But she quickly learned that Woodland, a quaint and quiet town, is nothing like San Francisco. She needed to live somewhere with noise.
So, she and Hayes moved to Sacramento County and later got married.
In 2015, Hayes was diagnosed with colon cancer. For the next six years, he went through rounds of chemotherapy. In 2021, his cancer got worse. Throughout the course of two months, Hayes was dying. He worked up until Tuesday, called in Wednesday and died Sunday.
His death was sudden and heartbreaking. It changed Rodriguez. But it was the last words of her late husband that prevented her from being consumed by grief. In his final moments, Rodriguez said he told her: “don’t let the emotions of grief stop you from doing things that would make you happy.”
Those words ring in Rodriguez’s mind almost everyday, she said.
Rodriguez’s leadership in Folsom
Before her days in politics, Rodriguez spent 24 years in health care and health care management. A self-described workaholic, Rodriguez decided to take on another profession to utilize her work ethic.
“I just thought, I’ve got to find a way to benefit from my own condition,” Rodriguez said. “I’m super high energy, so I’ve never burned out on anything in life. And so I thought, what do I love? I love food. I love my culture.”
Rodriguez would open Sutter Street Taqueria, located on 727 Sutter St. in Folsom, which serves San Francisco-style tacos, an ode to her Bay Area upbringing and the summers she spent in Mexico cooking with her grandma and aunts. The restaurant is currently run by her son.
Rodriguez’s career as a small business owner would open a path into in politics. She began attending Folsom City Council meetings to stay engaged in her community. But she noticed the leadership in Folsom, all white, did not represent the city’s population. Hispanic residents make up 14% of Folsom’s population, the second largest ethnic group in the city.
So, Rodriguez thought: Why not be the representation you want to see?
“I’m a believer of diversity,” Rodriguez said. “Back then, (I was) a business owner. I’m a restaurant owner. I am of Latina descent.”
She ran for Folsom City Council and became the first Latina in office in 2021. As the years went on, she served as the city’s mayor and tackled homelessness. She also led the council to take on a five-year strategic plan and adopted a $246 million budget which remained cognizant of the city’s $600,000 structural deficit.
Joe Gagliardi, the chief executive officer and president of Choose Folsom, met Rodriguez when she opened Sutter Street Taqueria in 2016.
Active in Folsom’s business community, she served as a board member of the Historic District Commission, the Folsom Chamber of Commerce, the Twin Lakes Food Bank and the Folsom Economic Development Corporation.
Galigardi said she was “instrumental in resolving the homeless situation” in Folsom and has been a “great advocate for business and listening to the citizens” while she was mayor.
“She has an incredible work ethic,” Gagliardi said. “First of all, she’s also a very honest, upfront person who wants to help people.
“She’s a good balance for purposes of staying within her means, but also really has compassion and wants to serve as a public service and make a difference,” he added.
Plans for Sacramento County
As a supervisor, Rodriguez plans to prioritize homelessness, public safety and transportation.
She said she wants to bring together cities in Sacramento county together to work on obstacles with homelessness. She’s also expressed interest in helping fill the shortage of law enforcement and ensuring residents feel safe. And when it comes to public transportation, she’s advocated for its streamlining, having herself faced a two hour commute from Folsom to Sacramento using Regional Transit District’s light rail trains.
Rodriguez said she adores problem solving, she said. Her political views lean towards moderate conservative, but she is open to seeing issues from all different perspectives, she said.
“I always think of problems as a good thing because you get to look at things from a different perspective,” Rodriguez said. “That mentality is really where, as we talk a little further about issues with homelessness, transportation and the lack of housing, I get to bring a different perspective.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
