The Folsom City Council held a regular meeting on July 8, 2025, with the primary focus on a critical discussion about fire department staffing in the context of the city's budget deficit.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call, with all council members present: Kozlowski, Leary, Rathel, Rohrbaugh, and Aquino. Mayor Aquino noted that most attendees were present for the fire department staffing item, which was scheduled as the final agenda item.
The council approved the consent calendar with one item (Item 11) pulled for separate discussion. Item 11, regarding a traffic signal timing project for Light Rail Preemption, was approved for $242,580 from the Light Rail Impact Fee Fund.
Several routine items were addressed:
City Manager Brian Whitemire presented a comprehensive analysis of the city's budget crisis, revealing a $3 million operational deficit for fiscal year 2025-2026. The presentation highlighted:
Budget Overview:
Fire Department Context:
Service Level Comparisons:
Extensive public comment period featured 25+ speakers, including:
Key concerns raised:
Final Decision: After extensive discussion, City Manager Whitemire revised his recommendation to support hiring the 8 remaining firefighter candidates (2 had already been lost during the process). The council unanimously voted to deny Resolution 11435, effectively allowing the hires to proceed.
Operational Reality: Despite hiring the 8 firefighters, the city will likely still need to implement service reductions through brownouts or other operational changes to achieve necessary budget savings. The decision provides short-term relief while acknowledging that structural budget issues remain unresolved.
Future Implications: Council emphasized that this decision does not eliminate the need for significant budget cuts across all city departments, with comprehensive budget restructuring plans to be developed in the coming months.
Then we will adjourn the special meeting and we will call to order the regular meeting of the Folsom City Council for Tuesday, July 8th, 2025. Would the clerk please call the roll? Council members Kozlowski. Here. Leary. Here. Rathel. Here. Rohrbaugh. Here. And Aquino. Here. And if you'd all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Mr. City Attorney, any agenda updates? Good evening, Madam Mayor. We do have a revised staff report transmitter for item 16 on tonight's agenda. A copy has been previously provided to you and they are also available on the table in the back. All right. Thank you very much. Good evening, everybody. It's great to see a full house. I assume most of you are here for the fire department staffing item. I do want to make sure you know that is the last item on the agenda. So we have a little bit of business to get through first. I'm going to guess about an hour. So if you need to duck out and make a phone call, if you're starving and you want to get something to eat, you have a little bit of time before we're going to get to that item. Okay. If you want to speak on that item or any other item on the agenda or an item that is not on the agenda, we ask that you fill out a blue speaker card. They're in the back table there. Hand it to Officer Ulm and the city clerk will call you up at the appropriate time. So that takes us to business from the floor. This is the public's opportunity to address the council on items that are not on the agenda. But please remember that state law prohibits us from deliberating or taking action tonight on items that are not on the agenda. So, Madam Clerk, do we have some requests to speak? We have five requests to speak under business from the floor. First up is Ron Carter followed by Akshara Maripali. All right. If Ron and Akshara would make your way down, please. We do allow three minutes per speaker. I know it's not a lot of time, but please remember we have a lot of public comments scheduled for tonight. And then we do all want to get out of here at a decent hour. So, Mr. Carter, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm looking at the required department directly losing five officers. Can you move the microphone toward your mouth, Ron?