Incumbents hold seats in Rocklin City Council election

The Abridged version:

• Incumbent Rocklin City Councilmembers Bill Halldin and Jill Gayaldo will keep their positions after winning a two-seat, three-candidate election last week.
• Both council members said that residents largely expressed satisfaction with the way things are going in the city, and that they’ll focus on issues like public safety, traffic congestion, economic development and shaping affordable housing in their next terms.
• Affordable housing became a hot button issue in Rocklin this fall, especially in light of recent City Council action related to two controversial development plans.

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Rocklin City Councilmembers Bill Halldin and Jill Gayaldo will keep their seats after winning the two-seat, three-candidate race for reelection.

Placer County vote counts, which were last updated Friday afternoon, show Halldin receiving a over 44% of the vote, Gayaldo receiving over 37% and challenger Walter Moore receiving over 17%. Moore conceded shortly after election day.

Halldin and Gayaldo told Abridged by PBS KVIE that they’re excited to continue serving the people of Rocklin and to focus on issues like public safety, traffic concerns, affordable housing and economic development.

“We’ve been so blessed to be recognized as one of the best and one of the safest places to live in California, and I think that continuity has been really important,” Gayaldo said. “I think people understand that Rocklin’s in a really good place, and we’re going to keep it that way. But we’ve got to always be looking for places to make improvements, too.”

Both officials were first elected in 2018, making the upcoming terms their third in office. They’ve also both previously served as mayor.

Halldin is currently the city’s vice mayor and has lived for nearly three decades in Rocklin, where he’s built a career in the public relations industry. He estimated that he knocked on about 5,000 doors while canvassing this campaign season, and that most residents expressed satisfaction with the city.

Others he spoke with identified key areas of concern they’d like City Council to focus on in the coming year, including e-bikes and the impacts of new affordable housing developments.

“Our efforts are to make these developments the best they can be within the contours of the law,” Halldin said. “The recurring theme was that people think Rocklin is a really special place to live, and I want to make sure that I can do what I can to keep our community that special place.”

Gayaldo, a small business owner who previously directed transportation for Elk Grove public schools, has lived in Rocklin for about four decades. She currently chairs the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. In an interview, she said that mitigating traffic, investing in trail connectivity and working to improve existing proposals for affordable housing developments are among her top priorities.

Affordable housing concerns

As Rocklin considers Midas Apartments, an affordable housing plan that many residents worry will worsen existing traffic congestion, Gayaldo is looking toward a potential partnership with the local school district to introduce new transportation options in the neighborhood.

“Every bus could take 60 cars off the road, so I’m really hopeful we could have that conversation to help with those mornings and afternoon times that really do impact the neighborhood,” Gayaldo said.

Affordable housing development has become a hot button issue in Rocklin as City Council contends with state mandates to build. This year, two proposed developments have stirred contentious debates in the community — Midas Apartments and Sierra Wilds Apartments, which the city approved a design review and California Environmental Quality Act exemption for in September. Rocklin’s decision to move forward with Sierra Wilds recently sparked a lawsuit against the city and City Council by a local school and parent group.

Other election results out of Rocklin currently remain up in the air. These include a school board race between two incumbents and ballot Measure C, a half-cent sales tax proposal. Gayaldo said the measure, which has garnered almost 53% approval as of Friday, will help the city build its fourth fire station.