Folsom is nuts if it puts city council pay to a public vote. Here’s why | Opinion
Folsom is perilously close to an overdose of democracy that would damage the city over a tiny amount of money that is worth every penny.
A proposal is fast emerging in the city to ask voters to approve city council salary increases.
Council pay totals about $120,000 a year in a city budget of about $120 million. And this is going to be the one spending item to put in the hands of voters?
The Folsom kerfuffle is a result of a slim majority of the city council mustering the courage to boost its pay from $600 a month to $1,900. This is a pay level that is permissible for a city of Folsom’s size under a new state law. For this hard‑working council, where the job is easily the equivalent time of a half‑time job, the pay now amounts to about $22 an hour.
Yet in the cost‑conscious political microclimate of Folsom, this prosperous city can fight foolishly over every penny. And as sure as the setting sun, some local residents have begun to complain about the pay raise down at City Hall.
It began to come to a head Wednesday at the Folsom 2026 Ad Hoc Charter Review Committee. This is a bureaucratic‑sounding body that can be one of the most powerful forces in town, because it can change how the city operates.
Folsom is one of an estimated 126 charter cities in California. Each of these cities has its own constitution of sorts, the charter. These tend to be governing words that last for a very long time.
At present, the Folsom charter allows the city council to set its own pay. Yet in the wake of the council’s decision to boost its salary to roughly half of the minimum wage in California, a proposal has emerged to require raises to go before voters for approval. A report on the idea could reach the council as soon as May.
“The public will have the opportunity to review that report in advance of the city council meeting,” Sari Dierking, the acting city attorney, said at the meeting Wednesday.
Once a city puts the masses in charge of setting council pay, it never gets the power back. This would be a forever move in Folsom. And there’s nothing in regional history that suggests this is a good idea.
The Roseville ‘embarrassment’
Roseville has even worse pay for its city council members, a whopping take‑home salary of $600 a month. Why? Because Roseville is also a charter city. And in 2000, city voters set the pay at this measly monthly figure. The pay has remained unchanged ever since.
Who out there hasn’t gotten a change in compensation in more than a quarter of a century?
Adjusting council pay in Roseville has been one of the city’s political taboos for years. But finally, the council on Feb. 18 voted 4‑1 to ask voters in November to consider raising the pay to $2,550 a month.
The existing pay “is a bit embarrassing,” council member Karen Alvord said at the February meeting.
“Serving on the council…is a losing financial proposition,” said Mayor Krista Bernasconi. Termed out this year (the charter limits service to two consecutive terms), she is not in line for the pay hike.
Folsom is trying its best to live within its means. In 2024, voters overwhelmingly rejected a half‑cent sales tax measure to boost the budgets of police, fire, parks and other popular services. The council got the memo. And it’s been hard at work.
Making political hay out of a tenth of a percent of the city budget is the kind of distraction that Folsom doesn’t need.
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 5:00 AM.