How Citrus Heights Local Government Works | MariJane Lopez-Taff

Citrus Heights City Council — Cleaned Episode Transcript

Guest: MariJane Lopez-Taff, Citrus Heights mayor and city council member at the time of the interview

Note: This transcript has been cleaned for readability. Raw timecodes and placeholder speaker labels were removed, obvious transcription errors involving names and locations were corrected, and repeated teaser material after the main interview was omitted. Statements about policy, accomplishments, priorities, taxes, public safety, housing, and the campaign remain attributed to the speakers and reflect the interview.

Opening & Meet MariJane Lopez-Taff

Government has forgotten where we get our money. In Citrus Heights, we have not forgotten. Do we have things to fix? Absolutely. But we're working on them. Every citizen deserves a government that remembers them. Nobody likes to just be taxed and they simply don't understand what the tax is for. I think we'd solve more problems. If we actually reflected what we heard.

Every vote absolutely matters. I'm first the resident, then a council member.

and welcome to the Key Concepts Podcast. Today we're talking about local elections and more specifically, Citrus Heights.

Today I'm joined by my special guest, MariJane Lopez-Taff,

mayor of Citrus Heights. MariJane, thank you so much for joining me today,

Kory. Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure.

Raging. Before we get started,

we asked that Alaska leave a question for the next guest.

And the question left for you is if you could have dinner with any three people that are alive today. Who are the three people you're inviting?

know, I actually would love to have dinner with the president.

I want to know how he makes decisions.

Of course, I'm in politics, and and he's at the pinnacle as far as U.S. politics is concerned. I would love to know how he thinks. I also, even though I have had a meal with

him, Kevin Kiley. I really like him. He is also also a great thinker. Obviously, I want to pick the brains of excellent thinkers.

And I also want to pick the brain of someone who thinks very differently from me. So potentially,

Council Member Ocasio-Cortez, because she is very different from me. And I would also like to know how and why she thinks the way she does.

That's really great. I mean, it gives you more well-rounded understanding and brings in multiple perspectives.

I think that's great because then you could represent more people if you understand their background. So that's that's awesome.

How the Mayor and City Council Roles Work

MariJane, for for people that don't understand how local government works, how did you become mayor of Citrus Heights?

Well, in Citrus Heights, we have a council city form of government. And so you have to be elected to city council.

And after elected election to city Council, you are selected by your peers, your fellow council members, to serve a one year term as mayor. Awesome. So you have to come in as a city council member. And then from there, one of throughout your duration, one of those years, you could be voted in by your peers as the mayor.

Correct. So when you become mayor, is it just a one year term as you guys rotate or how does it work? It is rotating, but it is a one year term.

calendar year for the council member.

Awesome. And when you become mayor, what changes you get more responsibility. Definitely more responsibility. More ceremonial responsibility. You get to lead all of the meetings.

You also do all of the proclamations that are,

in the community ribbon cutting. You get recognized as the mayor. You welcome organizations to your city, as I have multiple times in the last few weeks

to just welcome them and make them feel at home in your city.

And for when people are just city council members are not in that role yet.

What does the City Council member do?

City council members we all make decisions, so we're equals on council. Mayor. The mayor role does not have more weight per se for their vote. So we are all equal members,

voting members on all issues. But we

hear information and we ultimately make decisions for

either ordinances or proclamations or

approving contracts.

That's a big part of our role approving contracts and,

really reflecting our residents ideas on what they want for their city.

Leadership Experience and Communication

So you're kind of like the voice for the community. You're kind of help drive something to change and implement some things. Now, prior to getting into being a council member and a mayor for Citrus Heights.

You ran your own business for a while. You were in leadership. You had your consulting firm for a long time. Was there anything that you took from your prior experiences that you applied to your council member role?

are so many that I take in, you know,

being a nonprofit manager, you're dealing with volunteers. So these are people who are not paid

to work in your cause, do things that you're asking them to do.

And so,

you

know, there's there's that where you're working with people who you have to convince is a good thing to work with you.

When I taught leadership and management courses, I learned, really

that leadership is about motivating people to do things that they already want to do,

but

they don't know how to do it, or they need help from

a teammate or what have you.

And

it's

about making it easy to ask for help and easy for them to

showcase what they're good at.

And

think that's my greatest joy as a leader is helping people showcase what they're good at.

Yeah, and it definitely shows that you're a great communicator. And I think if you can have people,

just communicate, make them feel welcome. I think you solve 90% of the problems just by that alone. So absolutely everyone wants to be liked and everyone wants to feel safe. And I think

on council, I as mayor, try to make it so that all my council members feel that

I'm not cutting off their thought process when they're speaking.

Sometimes we speak to process the thought, and sometimes people do not speak until their whole thought is processed.

And I like to give an opportunity for both types of thinkers and communicators.

And

it's it's really been good on council. We have a very cooperative council.

No that's awesome. I'm like that too. I

like to speak my mind before I could get to the conclusions.

So if someone cuts me off or speaks over me, it I lose track of like, okay, we'll just do it whatever way you want then, you know? So

it

definitely makes me feel more heard and I appreciate that. That's a great, great skill set, great talent.

Misconceptions About City Council

And on that note, what would you say are some of the misconceptions about council members,

things that people believe are true, that aren't true?

Number one, it's a full time job. Absolutely not. For a local government. It is not a full time job.

We

are very, very part time and we get a stipend.

It's less than a part time job would get.

And,

the other misnomer is we cooperate with our city manager. We are

we are the governing body, and he is in charge of our staff,

but we don't jump over him to get into staff issues, procedural things like that.

We

can't tell staff members what to do. Again,

we're the governing body of the community, not,

administration.

It sounds like a volunteer role at that point. Sometimes it feels like it, but it's one that, you know, again, like a volunteer role. You have some passion around it and you want to get it done. Absolutely.

so what would you say are some of the biggest issues facing Citrus Heights right now?

now our biggest issue has always been the same. It's

how do you grow without room to grow.

And our city has always had this reputation. If if you know where Citrus Heights is,

you

know that we're completely landlocked. We've got Roseville to one side, County of Sacramento,

we

have Orangeville, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, and we're completely interior.

And

so how do you grow a community when you have absolutely no land?

And so we have

one big opportunity in Sunrise Mall redevelopment. And we're excited about that.

yeah, that that definitely could be tough because you you you can't expand. I mean Rancho for example, has all over everything over there by Douglas Anatolia. They could expand into Folsom can expand outward and then Citrus Heights is surrounded by everything.

So you kind of isolated.

Citrus Heights Growth and Economic Development

So what would you say are your biggest plans and priorities for Citrus Heights?

Well, my biggest plans are for economic development. Even though I just said we have absolutely no locations to grow

in the interior, we have a lot of opportunities. And so

we

just recently completed our

complete redevelopment of Auburn Boulevard with a great gateway project

and undergrounding all of our utilities on Auburn Boulevard from the 80 approach. And

that is gorgeous.

Now we have to fill it with businesses.

And

so when I talk about economic development in Citrus Heights, we're talking about

filling our storefronts, really making sure that people understand Citrus Heights is open for business.

And we have great locations that are ready for you. And I think too many people overlook Citrus Heights.

So my job as kind of the main ambassador of Citrus Heights, as the mayor, I go around and talk about business opportunities.

Sunrise Mall and Major Development Projects

Yeah, we got a market. That's a little bit more. Put it on the map and gay people to come out,

we briefly mentioned the Sunrise Mall Sports Center conversion net project, and that was originally slated for Folsom Ranch and all the way up, even till earlier this year, they had submitted plans for their project, but it now moved to to Citrus Heights.

so what ultimately made the developer choose Citrus Heights over Folsom?

Rancho Cordova, they had an opportunity to bring the sports complex to raw land.

When

you're talking about raw land, you're bringing all of the utilities up to the location.

And

for us in a mall site, all the utilities are located already.

And

so you're breaking top ground, not all the way down to add utilities and such,

which reduces time and dollars, of course. So

we just became a faster option. And we're also we're also able to get through the

paperwork version so much faster. We we have a very slim fast team.

So we're quite agile and frictionless to business owners. And so

I think we we just beat them time wise.

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I mean breaking ground, pulling utilities, getting all this and this and concrete and

that's, that's a lot of cost savings at the same time as well. It's already there. So repurposing something is a lot easier than building it from scratch.

It's almost like you rather just buy a business than started from start a business from scratch. It's that same inertia. Yeah, it's, it's already there, so. Yeah. That's awesome.

and for the Sunrise Sports Center that's going to be developed. You've called that a magic one moment for Citrus Heights. So what makes this project potentially transformative for the city?

Well, you need something big to make change. And I

when I was first campaigning,

I

met our economic development manager, and

she had been talking about what do we bring to the community?

And it came to me that we need to stop competing with our neighbors and start adding something new.

And I thought it would be would it be Entrepreneur center or a museum or something interesting

that

otherwise doesn't exist in our end of town? You know,

everything is downtown Sacramento. How do we bring

individuals who don't live in our community, into our community?

And so

being able to plant that seed in our economic development directors mind was

really important for them to have eyes, to see

a

very unique opportunity. And so it becomes a magic wand moment when

you look at something like sports. Citrus Heights is largely known as a family oriented community,

and families love to support sports opportunities for their kids.

And

so bringing a sports complex that will not only

have the potential to host minor league hockey, minor league hockey. Can you imagine something like that in our community,

as well as all the youth sports types, is really going to open up Citrus Heights to

all of the surrounding communities,

and the developer and the owners of

the sports complex really are talking about

30 minute commute times, but most people commute

up to two hours for hockey and ice sports.

So

it's going to be a great opportunity for Citrus Heights. And of course,

you're not sitting there, you know, for a half an hour practice or

a three day tournament without needing to have food, other entertainment for your other kids who aren't in the sports at the moment,

and traveling team. So we'll have restaurants, other opportunities for small scale shopping,

and so many different

Public Safety and Police

needs are next need that we're hunting for.

And I'll just put it out there is we're looking for a hotel,

so we need a hotel that crops up so we can house our sports teams.

And to be quite honest with you, so we can stop giving that money to to Roseville. So we want to make sure we keep all that, all that travel in-house.

absolutely.

And it helps fund the city, helps fund other projects, help helps with renewals for street signs, all of a set of stuff. So that's that's great if you can keep it local.

And I want to travel to citrus I see you. I don't want to go all the way out the Roosevelt. It's further for me. I don't want to go downtown Sacramento all the time.

But I will say that sunrise is a little congested already on traffic. And so like when you are reelected as a council member,

is there a ways that you could work with the developers to help mitigate traffic, and what would that look like?

Yeah, there are so many different ways that we work with traffic and

traffic consulting and all these things.

You

know, the mall was a fully functional mall

where we had holiday congestion that everybody was

was fairly used to, and it was built for that kind of level.

You

know, we have the second largest intersection with 40,000 cars traveling

on that corner of Sunrise and Greenback.

I think it was every day was a statistic.

I

drove it today and I was thinking, oh my goodness, to do this every day would be kind of interesting.

But we do work with a lot of traffic engineers to mitigate that, to understand the flow.

in four years they they hope to have, top level programing. So every program that they could ever conceive of is running

four years after opening. And so,

we're going to build up to it. It's not going to be every day that we'll have a concert on site. It's not going to be every day that we have minor league hockey games

So we we really can

mitigate for traffic in a reasonable way.

Yeah. Especially if it's, spread out or it's on weekends and stuff like that.

and the parking lots are big. Anyways, it was a mall. It was always just anyway, so like, yeah, that's that's that's a that's great.

What

about for the elevated crime I mean with big sports centers and things like that.

Typically with people coming in the one location, crime starts to keep up. So as council members, is there anything that you guys could do with law enforcement to help mitigate some of that?

Crime is our number one priority. In Citrus Heights. We have our own law enforcement.

We

have our own police department, which will be beefed up during those,

you

know.

Hi, hi opportunities.

And

we have a commitment from the owners of the sports complex that they will beef up their own security when we have concerts and games and such.

the feeling safe makes me want to come back all the time. So, so having that increased security will definitely help.

Affordability, Taxes, and Fiscal Responsibility

one thing that's on everybody's mind is affordability. And inflation is to the roof. And prices on everything almost seems unaffordable. It comes to food, groceries, housing and taxes. And you know it's everybody's wallet is being stretched that's for sure.

So council members and potentially mayor is there anything that you guys can do to help mitigate some of the costs of living?

Sure. Let me first start with what is the ethos of Citrus Heights. And that is fiscal responsibility.

And so our city is one of the only cities, I think, in the whole of California

that

actually runs with zero debt. We have debt owed to anyone

and we have money in the bank. And so with that particular philosophy, we are absolutely committed to our residents and not raising taxes, not

having a fee and fine structure that's prohibitive to live in Citrus Heights.

We

are considered still the last affordable community

in Sacramento County. So

we we love that reputation. And most of our residents aren't going anywhere because they know they have it pretty good in Citrus Heights.

citrus does have a few unique things about it. I didn't know that. Budgets in place, fiscal responsibility. That's very unique. I mean, most of California for years of debt. So yeah that's awesome. Less taxes, less having the need to find other ways to raise taxes on the citizens.

Housing and Redevelopment Opportunities

And on that note, you've also championed affordability for housing, and you partnered with habitat for humanity to build a single family homes of drive

if reelected, are there more opportunities like that to expand housing and make it kind of affordable for the citizens of Citrus Heights?

Sure. You know, while we have limited land, we still have opportunity.

And in Sunrise Mall there are many opportunities for affordable housing

and

market rate housing.

You know, there's housing needs of all kinds. That's why we have a housing crisis,

because there aren't enough homes. And so

having many types of homes available would really expand our particular market

and affordability. I think

many people, you know, forget that used to be a very scary, crime ridden neighborhood.

And we as a council, many council members before me

decided that we're going to do something dramatic.

And the drastic thing that we did was we shut down and condemned many for places that were the source of crime and

very, very scary

living conditions for the residents in that area.

And

when we condemned it, we made a promise to that community that that neighborhood is we're going to build it back

and it's going to look

like what you need.

And so this is a promise to that commitment. So many years ago,

I

believe it's been about 20 years since

it's been condemned. I've lived in Citrus Heights since

And so I saw it when it was condemned. I was surprised then and very impressed when I found out the backstory as to why. Because when you have drastic things happening in your community, if you don't address them

in a serious way, they just perpetuate and cost the whole community not only dollars as as well as expanding crime,

but

you also lose the confidence of your residents.

And so we want to make sure that everyone is confident to move to Citrus Heights and stay here.

Yeah, it's honestly if if crime is elevated, I just want to move. I just want to get out of it. And so making it such as safe and affordable and building more housing and welcoming people like that's

a great opportunity for for first time homebuyers and stuff like that.

And, building, you know, partnering with the habitat for humanity and these other contractors, like,

how does that work? Do you reach out to them? Do they reach out to you? How do you guys come up with these innovative ideas?

Homelessness and Community Challenges

We have a great community development department, and they are always looking for great work and partnership,

and

habitat for humanity actually has

such a stellar

reputation

in working in disadvantaged communities and really making them

what people need. You know, I love the backstory of habitat for humanity, where they really

encourage sweat equity, right? Many of us who bought homes,

we have some sweat equity involved, whether it was,

making sure we have the dollars around purchasing a home

or literally swinging a hammer like habitat

encourages their residents to.

In fact, it's not only encouragement, it's a requirement.

And the pride of ownership is super important. You know, once you've sung a hammer for that,

you are going to keep that up. You will have,

again, pride of ownership. You will know exactly how that was built together.

You you have a story to tell your kids, your family, your friends in the community.

it sounds like you guys focus on culture, and this is the first time I've ever heard cast member and mayor really focused on not just the community, but the culture of the whole city.

That's crazy. Yeah. That's amazing.

And on that note. You you said that we should always work for a better future, but never at the expense of the people who already call citrus rights Citrus Heights home.

what does that mean to you, and how does that principle guide you in your decision making as a council member and mayor?

It all comes back to fiscal responsibility.

How MariJane Thinks About Taxpayer Money

If I am as a council member, being responsible with the tax dollars that I've been entrusted with,

I'm making better decisions. I'm being more creative with those decisions,

and I'm doing less harm.

Meaning I'm functioning just like every family in our community. Every family is looking at their paychecks and seeing how long it'll stretch, getting creative with how to make it stretch as much as possible,

doing the best with the the what they have

because there are no other pools of money.

Government has forgotten where we get our money in Citrus Heights. We have not forgotten, but too many government layers above us have. And I think every citizen deserves a government that remembers them,

and we are the first layer of that. And so for me, it's always remembering that I to

pay taxes in Citrus Heights and I to do not like

any raise raising taxes of any kind at any level.

So it's just remembering that I'm first a resident, then a council member.

Yeah. And when taxes go up, they never come down, that's for sure. Yeah. No matter what they promise you, they never go back down.

Even when they have timelines, things like that. And,

you

know, I mean,

many of us and we can see how people have voted.

Many don't oppose a good, meaningful tax. I mean, it has to be purposeful.

And we need to see the work that that it actually affects.

But nobody likes to just be taxed and they simply don't understand what the tax is for.

Yeah, 100%. That's definitely you're definitely speaking like a resident.

That's for sure.

Diversity, Representation, and Listening to Residents

And you know such a size is incredibly diverse.

And so how would you represent all people of Citrus Heights?

My hallmark is listening, being in all the rooms, making sure that

everyone feels listened to. I don't, you know, outside of a podcast. I actually don't talk a lot when I'm around our residents because

I

want to pose a question and hear an answer. You

we need to do more listening in politics in general, and I think we'd solve more problems

if

we actually reflected what we heard, instead of thinking we have all the answers, and entering politics with what I call a bee in or bonnet.

You know, your issue is,

let's say it's homelessness and you see everything through that lens,

when that could possibly not be of interest to any of your residents, and

they

want you to beef up their police department.

So listening and being in rooms to listen is a priority for me. And I think

the

more we listen, the better.

Again, we can reflect

the needs and concerns of our residents.

I, I totally agree with that because when it comes from the bottom up, it's like that's the way it should be. I personally, it frustrates me whenever people just tell me what to do or what they're going to do for me.

What would that ever listening or asking like my opinion, right.

My opinion doesn't doesn't have to be taken into consideration. I just want to feel heard. You know, I just want to share my voice and give an opportunity for people to evaluate. Is that a good idea or not? But when people just say, oh, we're going to do this on your behalf, I'm like, do I care for that?

Right. Did I want that? Yeah. Half times. I don't know if I actually do. So,

listening and taking in communication and, and, and working with the, the community to understand what they want and need

that definitely I think is the right way to go about it, that's for sure.

Now you and your first election by 20 votes.

Does that change the way you look at this election.

Not really I had

a great opportunity. It was a field of four last election today. Today it's a field of two.

I think I have a solid strategy for again getting out there talking to my residents,

making them feel heard.

I

have a great reputation in the last four years of good decision making.

Being a good and responsive mayor, my theme as mayor was volunteerism and service. And that has been,

Priorities for Another Term

echoed throughout the year of my, my mayorship. And

I think people really resonate with that. It really speaks to the core of who Citrus Heights is. And so

feel like as I go out and talk to the residents at their doors,

I'm really getting good feedback.

And so I, I don't think, well, I think

every race has to be actually run. You have to put your, you know, your whole self into it. I don't necessarily think that there's anything different I would do. Listen, I have a more professional team this year.

Last time I did it all by myself with absolutely no knowledge and I still one.

And I'm very proud of that. And I know I'm putting the work in this time in, in the right way to get it done.

Absolutely. And doing podcasts like this so people can know more about you. I mean, if I was in your district, in district two, to be able to vote, you would have my vote as well.

Thank you. Well,

And on that note, what makes you a better candidate versus the other candidates running for district two? City council member.

I know my opponent is running a very negative campaign

and by personality I am very, very positive.

I'm very hopeful for the future of Citrus Heights, and I have a lot of great expectations for Citrus Heights,

and

I think our community deserves that. They don't deserve someone who is

seemingly upset with their or their existence here in the city and complaining about things.

Do

we have things to fix? Absolutely. But we're working on them.

We're not ignoring those things.

And I think, again, just like me as a resident, I deserve a hopeful city council versus someone who's just wanting to tear down everything we've been working on.

You

know, the reason why we attracted a big project like the Sunrise Sports Center

is

because they saw a very positive forward momentum,

eager community and council, and we can't lose that.

We can't lose that because we want to criticize things left, right and center

Local Elections and Why Voting Matters

again, are there things to criticize? Sure. But also acknowledge the work that's being done. I think our community prefers that

and we're going to keep moving forward.

Yeah, the community is only going to be as strong as his leadership, you know? And so if the future looks bright, it will be bright for the citizens as well.

Yeah.

someone watching that has never participated in local elections before, what would you tell them this time to get them out and participate?

My greatest joy and privilege as a citizen, my my grandparents were immigrants. My my parents were immigrants. I'm the only American born grandchild in my family.

My greatest privilege is the privilege of voting.

That is where I get to tell the government what I want. I think whether you're naturalized or born in this country, we can't lose that privilege.

And, you know, when I turned 18, I so excitedly filled out my voter registration card,

turned it in,

and started voting. I didn't know anything about voting. That's fine.

You

know, America is so great.

They give you a voter guide, you can read ahead.

And in California, it's it's dropping the week of October 3rd.

You

get a whole month to decide on all of these issues.

By the way, there are a lot of issues we have, I believe, 14 propositions.

So

it's going to be a very lengthy

ballot, but it's worth it.

Our country is worth it. If you like anything about this country, if you want to change anything about this country, it's through your vote. It's not through protests. It's not through any other activity. Your vote is how you get counted.

for those that are sitting at home and they're getting at their ballots in October

and they're doing their research, and before they fill in that bubble for district two, Citrus Heights City Council member

and let's just say maybe they're on the on the fence of like, who who they should fill in that bubble for.

What would you like them to know before they make their decision?

Do you want positive change and forward momentum, or do you want negativity

and someone who continually

criticizes the city? I say vote for the girl for positive change.

Final Campaign Message

Absolutely. Yeah. It's always like pessimism is like, you know, no one wants to be around negative people because it's contagious.

So let's just let's talk about hope. Let's talk about what we can do, not what we can't do or our problems.

Let's talk about the solutions. You know, I want to fix these. Yeah. Let's go forward and make some change. Yeah.

For people that are listening, what do you hope that they got out of today's conversation?

you know, you heard a little bit about my background. I came from immigrant family. I hope you get inspired to, number one, become a voter. Number two, if you're a voter, turn in your ballot. And by the way, you don't need to vote in every category.

You don't understand that category or question. Leave it blank.

It's not like a test at school, even though it looks like a bubble test from school.

You

don't need to answer every single category to make a difference, and every vote absolutely matters.

Where to Find MariJane

For people that want to find out more about your campaign than follow you. Where can they go online and your socials and get in touch?

Sure. My website is vote for com and you can find me on Facebook. That's the one I keep up with. I know

it's,

vote for Jane 2026.com.

Awesome. Vote for Jane 2026.com. Yeah. District two City Council member. That's where they can find you on the ballot. And we'll get your socials in the description below. When this comes out we'll also get the in the lower thirds and all that good stuff.

So wonderful for the audio listeners. Just click into the description. You'll be all

Closing Thoughts

MariJane Lopez Taaffe, thank you so much for coming on today's episode of the podcast. It's been a pleasure getting to know more about you and your campaign and your vision for Citrus Heights. All right. Thanks. It's been awesome.

think the biggest takeaway from today's conversation is that local elections often get overlooked, and sometimes they're the ones that matter the most because they impact the way that we live our lives and the city that we live in.

And when it comes down to 20 votes, that really could make a difference in 2022. That means 2026 is knocking on your door for you to participate.

you for watching this episode of the Key Concepts Podcast.

We're looking forward to you guys getting out there this election cycle and getting out there to vote. District two City Council member.

You guys know who the bubble in.

Thank you so much. And we'll catch you next one.