The following blog represents the opinions of Aaron F Park Your intrepid blogger, and are not reflective of the opinions of others (but they should be…)

The ballot in South Placer County is pretty boring with a few high impact local races.

The biggest pattern are a string of recruits brought to the ballot by local democrats, including Dem Cent Com members filing for office themselves and a slew of others that appear to have been recruited by the same person. The Rocklin School Board, Roseville High School, Dry Creek Union and of course the Eureka Union School District (which has been controlled by the Left-leaning Eureka School Foundation going as far back as I can remember)

The two I am watching most closely? Rocklin. The re-election of Dereck Counter and if Tiffany Saathoff can take out DSA-darling Michelle Sutherland.

There appear to be a couple fights in Placer Union, Western Placer and some of the other smaller districts as well.

While I am helping Pete Constant in the Roseville High School, there is at least one other race that appears to be a top priority for the left. They recruited a former union official, who is articulate and wrote a trigger-word laced ballot statement in his race against Phil Escamilla. Constant is running very strong with a strong record, with a lot of endorsements and money coming in already – it is a far different dynamic for Pete than his council run in 2024. My picks are obviously Pete Constant and Phil Escamilla.

There are some contests on the Placer County Office of Education and the Sierra College Board – suggesting that the leftist recruiting drill spilled over on to those as well. Sergey Trebkov needs to be re-elected.

There are two open Roseville City Council races. One has retired Fire Chief Rick Bartee with an almost clear path. While Bartee is respected and well known, this will give democrats two votes on the Roseville City Council. The second race is convoluted. The Republican running is a dumpster fire, and I have known him for 20 years (at least), the opponent is a well-respected NPP who is raising a ton of money and has a lot of cross spectrum support. I will not be endorsing a candidate in either race as there is not a viable Republican option. Really sad to see from Roseville.

There is a Water Board Race in Placer as well. This pits my guy Jeff Willoughby against old Roseville Pauline Roccucci. Roccucci has held office the better part of 30 years. Between her and her husband, that family has held office almost as long as I have been alive. Roccucci is telling people she is running for one term only. My only question is why? It undermines a campaign when you run for office with a short expiration date. Jeff Willoughby is the incumbent, served one term in the City School Board and has been racking up a ton of endorsements despite being opposed by the relatively well known 70-something opponent.

This is the classic clash between the Roseville of yesterday and the Roseville of today.

There are two Lincoln City Council Races. (((Fill in the name of candidate here))) is running against Holly Andreatta (aka Marjorie Taylor Green of Placer County). I will be supporting (((Fill in the name of candidate here))) who I hope is a registered Republican. (I didn’t check)

The other Lincoln Council Race features failed former councilmember Spencer “Spender” Short running against an incumbent. I can’t even remember the incumbent’s name, but I’d vote for him over Spender Short and pretty much anyone in Lincoln over Spender… (except for Holly Taylor Greene, I suppose)

In Rocklin, similar to the School Board, the dems filed one candidate for office. It suggests that they know Jill Gayaldo despite being registered NPP is one of them. This means they are targeting my long time friend and ally Bill Halldin. I am endorsing only Bill as he is the only Republican in that race.

There are a slew of local measures on the ballot – I am going to opine on those I know about.

Measure A – City of Roseville
(Requires a simple majority vote to pass)
Shall the Charter of the City of Roseville be amended to adjust council member compensation from the current $600 a month that was established by voters 26 years ago, to $2,550 a month, with annual incremental adjustments tied to inflation not to exceed 5%, which is less than allowed under State law?

The City of Roseville has an upcoming brutal contract fight with some of their Unions. (See above comments about Rick Bartee) The City wants the unions to take 55% of the average of surrounding jurisdictions – yet is proposing jumping their own pay to 140% of the local jurisdictions. While I agree $600 a month is too little, I believe they overshot the target. I doubt there will be serious opposition to this and I think it passes.

Measure B – South Placer Fire Protection District
(Requires 2/3 vote to pass)
To reopen closed fire stations: improve response times/firefighting capabilities; an attract/retain experienced emergency medical responders, shall South Placer Fire Protection District repeal two parcel taxes, require its Board to repeal an assessment, and establish a single, uniform $375 annual parcel tax on single-family parcels, and other parcels as specified, to generate approximately $5,750,000 annually until ended by voters, with considerations for low-income residents, disclosures, audits and citizen oversight, be adopted?

Before you make the dog-whistle “It’s a Tax” argument, Granite Bay is a wildfire zone. I have seen the shuttered fire stations with my own eyes. This amounts to $225 a year per parcel and would keep the district local and restore strong fire protection. If the State takes over the district (because absent this passing, the district will close), the level of Fire Protection will not be as good. Local control is always better. I will have more to say about this measure later, but if I lived there, I’d vote yes.

Measure C – City of Rocklin
(Requires a majority vote to pass)
To maintain Rocklin’s public safety, financial stability and core public services, including: rapid 911 emergency/ medical response; police/ fire protection; keeping public areas and parks healthy/ safe/ clean; preserving open space; preventing wildfires; shall the City of Rocklin’s measure establishing a half-cent sales tax, providing approximately $8 million annually for general revenue purposes, until ended by voters, keeping all funds local, with annual audits/ public spending disclosure, be adopted?

Because I consider Dave Bass, Ken Broadway, Greg Janda and Bill Halldin friends, it seems to me that they have to have seen compelling evidence that this is their last best solution to Rocklin’s budget issues. Therefore, I will go along with this measure.

Measure D and E – school bonds. Sigh.

Measure F – Lincoln’s 1 cent sales tax. Until City Hall gets the equivalent of a superfund cleanup, there is no way anyone can justify giving them more money to waste. Further, if this passes, it will help Rocklin and Roseville as people will drive down the clogged 65 Freeway to go shopping. If I lived in Lincoln, I’d be campaigning against this.

Measure G and H – benign charter amendments to Placer County Charter providing clarity for two specific things that can happen. Would have no problem supporting this.

Measure I – Colfax 1 cent sales tax.

Measure P – Tahoe-Truckee Unified Parcel tax renewal with increase.

There are a couple countywide officeholders on the ballot – but the dem legislature moved the Sheriff and DA to the presidential election. This was done in order to help the George Soros crowd buy more fire-starter DA/Sheriffs in a higher dem turnout universe.

That’s where I see things today!