El Dorado Hills CSD union to debate filing complaint with public employee board
Labor negotiations between the El Dorado Hills Community Services District and its unionized employees have lasted more than a year. Now a union spokesperson says employees might file a complaint with a state board intended to protect public employees.
“AFSCME, Local 1 is meeting Wednesday to discuss filing a complaint with (the) Public Employee Relations Board, for bargaining (in) bad faith,” union spokesperson Tina Acree said.
Negotiations between the district and employees began in April 2025, according to Acree, who said a proposed agreement has been before the Board of Directors for about three months. While the union has raised concerns about the process, El Dorado Hills General Manager Stephanie McGann Jantzen said the district cannot discuss ongoing human resources negotiations.
While concerns have surfaced, Acree said a strike is not in the immediate picture.
The last agreement ran from March 2022 through June 2025. Negotiations started months before the expiration date, Acree said, but were delayed in good faith because of new leadership at the helm. Compensation was a major factor during those negotiations, and employees received a 3% raise.
“They were (also) going to do a compensation study on the wages,” Acree said.
The compensation study completed last December showed many positions were at or above the 50th percentile among comparable agencies, including the Folsom Parks and Recreation Department and Cameron Park Community Services District. However, some positions ranked below that benchmark.
The salary range for a maintenance aide at the El Dorado Hills Community Services District is about $35,500 to $44,300, according to the compensation study Acree provided to The Bee, compared with the 50th percentile range of about $43,700 to $53,300.
Pay for the administrative specialist position was also below the benchmark, the study found, with a range of about $51,200 to $64,000 in El Dorado Hills compared with the 50th percentile range of roughly $64,000 to $82,300.
When it comes to salary, Acree said it is important to pay a wage that allows employees to live in the eastern suburb. If more employees lived in the community, she said, it would provide a personal incentive to remain invested in the district. Only two of the union’s 22 represented employees live in El Dorado Hills, according to union data.
“In communities where people can actually live in the community they serve, you actually are more invested because you live there, you work there,” Acree said.
The average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in El Dorado Hills is more than $2,500 a month, according to Apartments.com, with rent prices up 6.3% from last year. That compares with nearly $1,800 per month in Cameron Park and $1,500 in Placerville, and is similar to Folsom.
But when it came to possibly changing those positions’ salaries, Acree said the district’s financials did not support the changes. The district’s general fund revenues are about $15.6 million for its 2027 fiscal year budget, while its expenditures are nearly $15.4 million.
Now, a proposed one-year agreement is before the board, according to the union. The proposal would not require any salary adjustments but would ask the district to adjust wages below the 50th percentile by June 2027 where feasible. It also would require employees exceeding the 70th percentile to forgo a pay scale increase for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 fiscal years.
Even without the required pay increase in the proposal, Acree said compensation remains a long-term priority.
“The magical Oompa-Loompas don’t come out of the chocolate factory at night and get everything done,” she said. “It actually takes manpower, but the community also has to understand. In order to get that done, it takes humans, employees, that you have to pay a living wage to get it done.”
