Rancho Cordova City Council District 5 Explained | Lilia Darbinyan

Rancho Cordova City Council District 5 — Cleaned Episode Transcript

Guest: Lilia Darbinyan, local business owner and Rancho Cordova City Council District 5 candidate 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. Political statements, campaign positions, priorities, and election-related claims remain attributed to the speakers and reflect the interview.

Opening & Meet Lilia Darbinyan

Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today we're talking about district five Rancho Cordova and local politics.

Joining me today is Lilia Darbinyan.

She is a local business owner and a candidate for Rancho Cordova City Council district

Philia. Welcome to the podcast. Glad for you to be here. Yeah. Blessed to be here.

Thank you. Kory. Awesome.

before we get into being a candidate and running for city council,

we asked that the last guest leave a question for the next guest, and the question left for you was,

what inspired you to do the work that you're doing, and when did you realize that's the work that you wanted to

I actually opened up a private school last year, and prior to that, I had opened

Sacramento's first Armenian literacy program for preschool age children.

I kind of wanted to build outside of the Armenian community to bring that value to everyone else around us, the community of Rancho Cordova.

Yeah, sounds like you have a heart for community. And now you're expecting that to the broader Sacramento region

and more specifically, Rancho Cordova district five.

What Is Rancho Cordova District 5?

And for those that don't know what Rancho Cordova District five is. Can you explain what region that covers?

So in 2023, Rancho Cordova has separated out into five districts. District five specifically covers Stone Creek, Capital Village and White Rock,

awesome Stone Creek, Capital Village, and White Rock.

And so how what would you say? How many people live in that district generally,

according to last year's numbers, were at a little less than 17,000 residents just in district

17 ish ish. Yes, yes. And that was last year. So

knows that how much that's updated is from the last poll that was taken?

What Does a City Council Member Do?

And for people that don't know what a council member does. Like can you explain what that role is about?

What kind of authority does it have. And if someone votes for you. Let's just say like what are they saying yes

there's five council members in the city, and all five of them have a say of what goes on in Rancho Cordova.

You know, we hire the city manager, we hire the city attorney. We decide what the budget is looking like for the year where the money out of the budget goes. We're basically here to make sure things are done properly for the city, and work with the city manager and the city attorney to keep Rancho Cordova the great city as it

Yeah, Rancho Cordova is great. I always say Sacramento is the best city in the world, but Rancho Cordova is, you know, part of the greater Sacramento area. So that's Rancho Cordova included.

How the Mayor Role Works

Now, when I was preparing for the podcast, the I was looking at like me or ship and everything, and I found out that the mayor gets rotated on the council member list of whoever's part of that board, so and so forth.

So what additional authority or powers or decision making does the mayor get whenever they're elected on that yearly term?

in addition to having the same role as a council member, you have your own office and you kind of get to go to the ribbon cutting. And it's only a one year term rather than a four year term

for an elected and mayor.

council members

through its rotation would have a one year term as mayor as well. So that's kind of cool.

Yeah, I think it's great because keeping a mayor who's actually involved rather than coming in from the outside,

I think that's what's going to ultimately keep Rancho Cordova going strong, because this person understands all the rules and everything about the budgeting, and it kind of makes things a little bit easier for

I think for me, before the podcast, I didn't really know much about what city council members do.

And so

Misconceptions About City Council

what would you say are some misconceptions that people have about council members?

people just assume the city council members, they kind of just sit in their offices and tell people what to do. But actually, specifically for Rancho Cordova, I can say that the city council members are pretty involved with their community.

We don't take really a salary home. You can look at it as a volunteer position per se.

And ultimately, I feel like the people that run for this position for Rancho Cordova really, really love their community and love their city if they're doing

So it's more of a volunteer role. Yeah,

Why Lilia Decided to Run

for those hearing about Lilia for the first time, what made you run for Rancho Cordova at District five? City council?

I think when it started clicking to me on how important it is, is when I did open up my private school last year in Carmichael,

I was really welcomed by the community and I had an opportunity to run for what's called honorary mayor. Again, volunteer position. It's not elected.

Carmichael is an unincorporated city, so there's no city council members or anything.

We just have district supervisor.

And throughout that role running for that campaign, I guess you can say I realized that

I can make such a bigger difference in such a bigger community than just the community I was raised in. So that kind of opened my eyes

to the political side of things. And when we had the opportunity to move back to Rancho Cordova

saw the opportunity to run for city council, you know, I mean, my husband talked about it, talked about it with my family, and they really pushed me to to move forward with it because they know where my heart stands.

And I really want to make positive changes in the community.

That's awesome. Yeah, and doing that at the

Carmichael level in that incorporated area kind of becomes a launching pad for you to then do it for Rancho Cordova. So how many people are actually running for Rancho Cordova City Council? District

The District 5 Race and Citywide Representation

We currently have three people running, including myself.

so there's three people running and how many positions are available for district five?

Just one. Just one position.

One position. Yeah. So let's say you get that one position in district five. Are you only representing district five or what's what's your region that you end up representing if you get that one position.

So although we need the votes from everyone who lives in district five when I'm elected in, what ends up happening is I work with my fellow city Council members and we make decisions for all of Rancho Cordova. So even though the votes I need are in district five, I am one of five people that makes all the decisions for all of our Rancho Cordova.

Oh, wow. That's that's actually I opening.

the ballots they come they come to district five. Those 17,000 people vote. But if you are then elected for that district, you're not locked into that district.

You're representing all of Rancho Cordova in the entire population. So it's a much bigger role than, you know, representing 17,000 people. You're representing the whole the whole city at that point.

Yep. Well that's amazing.

Lilia's Background and Connection to Rancho Cordova

So what makes you a better candidate than the other people, the other two people that are running for this position?

I'm a Rancho Cordova native. I was born and raised here, lived here for 24 years before I got married and moved to another city, also in Sacramento, not too far away from Rancho Cordova. And now I'm back. So, you know, I saw Rancho Cordova, what it was 20, 30 years ago and the progress it's made in the past 30 years.

And I also see the progress that has not made in the past 30 years. You know, I'm looking at it through a community lens rather than a political lens.

So this is this is basically your home. Then you basically lived in Rancho Cordova and maybe the greater Sacramento for your

entire life. That's right. Is what it sounds like.

Then you've seen the good, the bad and everything in between. What would you say is some of the biggest challenges that Rancho Cordova is facing right

What I see is I think what other cities see as well. I think we still have a big problem with our unhoused community. And I think what Rancho Cordova has tried to do is build housing for these unhoused individuals.

But I think it stems deeper than that

I think looking into building some more rehabilitation centers, more mental health clinics, we don't really have any mental health clinics in Rancho Cordova, you know,

fixing the problem at its core rather than housing the problem, we're not really going to get far with fixing the drug epidemic that we have. And,

And difference is a good difference to me. And, you know, it's going to take a whole lot of work. It's going to take a lot of time.

I'm ready to commit those hours and commit the time to make sure we have a cleaner, safer Rancho Cordova.

Yeah. Cleaner, safer. I'm all for that. When you mentioned the drugs for a second, I probably know 3 or 4 friends

that have gone drugs and have never recovered from it. Broken families, thousands of dollars. So any way to keep the drugs off the streets and do some of the preventative stuff would be amazing

because you just see it at one individual, but you don't see the family behind that one individual.

Community Priorities and Public Safety

So it's very sad. Yeah.

What are your biggest priorities and plans for Rancho? You would say,

supporting our small businesses a little bit more. We have a great Rancho Cordova Chamber of Commerce, and they've done all that they can to support our small businesses. But I find there is a disconnect with the community and the small businesses.

And, you know, this past couple months that I've been running my campaign, I would reach out to business owners, community members and just ask them, you know,

what's the problem here? Like, why are you going to our neighboring cities like Bolsa, El Dorado Hills, Roseville?

Why are you not staying here for the retail, the restaurants and the answers I'm getting is, you know, it's it's more family friendly in regards to an outing.

Going to the Palladio, the fountains or the El Dorado town center, then it would be in Rancho Cordova. And funny enough, the small businesses I've been reaching out to the past couple of months,

after speaking to them, I would say seven out of ten do not even live in Rancho Cordova, but they run their business in Rancho Cordova.

And I find that that's an issue for me. That makes me upset because,

you know, we want people to live here. We want people to raise their families here, but we want their children when they get older, to want to live here, too. And I find that we're really lagging on that part of what we can do for our community.

Yeah, there's not much to do in Rancho. I mean, you're usually going up to the Folsom other huddle, like you said, or you go into downtown Sacramento, so you have to leave the city to kind of enjoy it. There was that Sunrise Mall, but that's on the central sites area. So Rancho itself, aside from a few breweries, I don't think there's really much else going on.

But I do like the brewers. I will mention that right there. I'll send in Folsom. Yes, a couple. Yes, the

Dover Arena soccer arena. I've been hearing murmurs of them building this big stadium. Maybe they attract some of those people that live locally, the state, locally and not have to travel out of the city.

Sure. Do you know what that plan is about, what they're trying to do or what you're trying to do to build that out?

Like expand on what? That I think it's a soccer stadium that they're building. Can you expand little bit more on

they want to bring in some music festivals. They want to bring in a lot of great hotels and

retail centers, restaurants, basically like a hangout hub for everybody. So it reaches out to the whole community and, you know, looking into getting even a hockey team and

a Rancho Cordova soccer team or Sacramento soccer team.

So there's a lot of big plans for Doba. I'm super stoked about it because I think this will bring the right attention to this beautiful city.

Yeah. That's awesome. I'm looking forward to it. I want to enjoy it too. The one concern I have, though, is

with the expansion of the Dover Soccer Stadium. I don't know if you remember the floor and mall. That one was good for a while, but then crime kids, all this sort of stuff kind of made it go downhill, even a few shootings. Unfortunately, Arden Mall is kind of been like that.

Growth, Development, and Quality of Life

There's been a few shootings there, and Sunrise Mall just eventually fizzled out, not necessarily due to crime. I think there's other reasons, but more or less with Florin and Arden, we see these elevated crime levels because there's a lot of attraction, a lot of people, and that's one thing that would worry me or something that would be concerned about is now we have a big soccer stadium and people are now coming out of Rancho Cordova into Rancho Cordova.

If they're not locals, they're probably not going to treat it with respect and honor the other people that live there. So what would you do to address maybe the elevated crime that might also come with a big attraction like that?

I think we have a pretty great relationship with the Rancho Cordova Police Department, and I'm not sure if most people know, but that's actually contracted through sac PD

and our officers are great.

Their response time is wonderful, and I've met a few of them and everyone's really excited. And I think working closely with them, maybe implementing some training programs on how to deal with a big community coming out to something like that, because it would be as if look at Golden One Arena, people come for events and sometimes they're mingling outside, walking back to their cars.

I think the difference would be is we're having events rather than like a shopping mall where people go and they can stay there all day and shop and linger.

I think this is more for the community to come have family time, you know, experience all parts of the fun, you know, go watch a soccer game, go get a pretzel, go have some ice cream, hang out in the front area where they're going to have really nice seating.

I'm really excited about that. And even people from coming in from out of town staying at those beautiful hotels that they have planned.

But ultimately, I think working closely with our police department and preparing for that rather than just waiting until something goes wrong. And then, you know, what do we do now?

being preventative in nature.

Great. Yeah. Love the foresight to be able to address that early on. And then with all of the people coming in, the traffic is going to be another thing that we'd have to address. So

is that something that the city council can then work on? Can they plan like different traffic routes and figure out a way to alleviate congestion?

Is that one of the roles that that the council members would

I

believe the people working on Dover are working on something that would make that part easier.

I think anyone following Dover will probably see what they have planned in regards to, you know, traffic not being an issue and, you know, helping in that aspect.

Yeah. I mean, Rancho is growing like crazy. And I'm sure that the roads and highways, all that stuff is going to

be

taken into consideration.

is there anything that you could do to make opening up a business more easier in Metro Cordova?

Is there like red tape that you could remove

so it's funny you say that actually, I made a decision that when I'm elected in that I would form a committee that would actually fast track the permitting process and hopefully we can bring the permit fees down, because

You know, for someone who comes here from another city that wants to follow their dream and open up like a small coffee shop or a little restaurant or something, it might be

disheartening to be waiting for a permit for a few months, or, you know, having to pay the fees that it's costing for this thing that, you know.

So me understanding that I would

one of my big things would be to form a committee that can hopefully fast track that process.

Yeah. It's tough. I mean, if you could fast track it, that's amazing

with the talk about businesses and representing small businesses overall in general. And I went to ChatGPT and I just looked at some rough numbers on demographics were rescued, so generally about 40% white, 20% Hispanic, 20% Asian, about 10% black, and then probably 10% for whatever else is in the the melting pot of Rancho

Schools, Families, and Community Services

How would you represent all these groups to make sure that the whole community is being represented, if they elect you?

I think just listening to the people, I want to understand what the people need for me as a city council member, rather than what I think that they need.

What would you say to someone sitting at home?

There's a family member and they're wondering like, well, what can a city council actually do to make my life better? What would you tell

is my family lives here too, and what I would want from my family is what I would want for everyone else's family. It's a good community, a safe community, and ultimately a community that we want to spend our weekends here and not go to our neighboring cities to get a bite to eat or take the kids somewhere.

I want this to be home for everybody.

what would be some examples of what home would look

like

for me personally, if it was up to me, I'd put a movie theater in Rancho Cordova.

I think

we need one more retail centers rather than just a boutique here and a boutique there somewhere where it's just you can walk to the next place that you need to go. I think that's what's missing. And I guess you can say that's what differentiates us with, let's say, downtown Sacramento. You know, you could step out of your house in downtown and just one block down, you can go get your coffee.

Another block down, you have a boutique a block away from that. You can get, you know, Pushkin Bakery. We don't have that here. I think

having the resources for families to make their lives easier, I think we're lacking just a little bit on

That'd be cool. It's almost like if you were to imagine what a downtown Rancho Cordova would look like is, what would that essentially entail and how would we get there?

I mean, more things to do is cool. Kids can go to playgrounds, they can go to movie theaters. I like the drive ins. That's off Bradshaw, like the skating rinks. So all of those family activities would be a good plus for the

what would you want to look like 10 to 20 years from

I would want to see the residents doubled. I would like to see more housing go up.

would want the city center to be built. I would love to incorporate more of different people's cultures into the city. So, you know, a cultural center if possible.

And ultimately, I want this to be, again, safer city. I want it to be where it's 10:00 at night on

Olson Drive, and we feel okay to take a walk or it's 10:00 in May thr field, and we're okay to go to the gas station, and we're not scared for our lives or, you know, whatever the case may be, taking the light rail from one location to another.

And, you know, I want it. In ten years from now, my kids are going to be old enough to do all those things. And I want me as a parent. I want to know that they're safe.

Listening to Residents and Community Engagement

Yeah, no. That's awesome. You can definitely tell you're more passionate about the position, and it's not going to be just a title that you're really in it for the community.

And on that note,

a lot of people don't vote. I mean, sometimes I get my ballots and I just throw them away, to be honest, because I really am not interested or don't care enough to participate in the election. I know that's, you know, my fault, but that's just the honest truth. And I bet you there's like 10,000 people that are just like me that are going to be getting those ballots.

So

for the person sitting at home, that's going to do what I normally do throw the ballot away. What would you tell them to get them to vote this election? So funny you say

although we are at almost 17,000 residents, just in my district, only 8700 of those 17,000 are registered voters. So that made me take a step back and wonder what is going on.

And then I realized, wait a second, I wasn't a registered voter for the first time until I was 31. So I think educating the community on why it's important to be involved in local politics is going to be our number one best way to get people to vote. And, you know,

coming on these podcasts, speaking to people one on one, going and knocking on doors and letting people know like this, I'm I want to be your representative.

And ultimately, I have to motivate these people

on voting because I want them to know that I want to change Rancho for the good. And I can't do it without without their vote. Every vote, every vote counts, especially for local elections. Every vote counts.

I mean, with that many unregistered people in the district, every vote does count.

So for the

people that are at home and are not registered, where can they go to register? If you're if they're getting excited and they're like, man, I like I like what is saying I want to go vote for how did they go get registered

If you Google there's several websites that you can actually register to vote on. You can even do it through the DMV when you're going in your real ID or your driver's license.

September 13th I'm collaborating with Passion Mission.

They're holding an event at Capitol Village, and I will have a booth set up there.

We will have voter registration forms, and we will be more than happy to assist anyone to register to

people can go to your campaign website, find out more information, follow you on your socials to find the exact address.

So if you go to vote for Lillia com it. Actually I have a ton of information about a lot of different things on my website in regards to voting as well. I have there when the ballots go out in the mail.

what date you need to be registered by in order to vote in this election. And I have my events all on there and everything gets updated pretty quickly. So yeah, if you want any information in regards to any events,

Any information on how to vote, just go to vote for Lillia or my Instagram page. I'm pretty informal on there as well.

awesome. So vote for Lillia. Com. Find out more. We'll make sure we get the socials,

Local Government, Trust, and Why Voting Matters

all that stuff plugged into the descriptions and on the on the screen. If someone's still not convinced and they're like does my vote really matter?

I mean, let the city do whatever they're going to do. What would you tell them?

Call me. I will personally speak to this person if you doubt that your vote doesn't count in the elections, I will personally talk to you one on one. And I want to understand better on why you think it's not important. Because you know my reasoning for thinking that for the first 31 years of my life on why it wasn't important because it just it wasn't a priority in my family.

But everyone might have different views on that. You know, if it's somebody, well, it's not doesn't change my life. What am I going to do? But it could possibly change your life. It could possibly make. If you plan on staying at Rancho Cordova for a long time, you want to get involved. You want the people that you trust to be running your city.

And if you don't trust those people, you're not going to want to stay there.

Yeah, we wanted to change for the good. We want to stay in Cordova. Moving is tough. It's very expensive. And it's a it's a big change. So I guess it does matter more than people think, I guess how I plan to put

So you mentioned kind of the ballast.

They're going out. When when does the when do ballots get sent out and when does voting start.

Voting Information and Final Campaign Message

So the ballots get sent out October 5th. So the mail in ballots. And if you're registered to

you should receive it in the mail. And the polls open up November 3rd from my understanding. So usually there's some churches that are you can go and vote at there is local polling stations you can go and vote at

Again. That's all on my website as well. So it gets updated. If you or anyone needs any information on that, vote for com. Awesome. And for the people sitting at home that are still undecided, tell them why do you deserve their vote?

I would appreciate their vote. And if you want a trustworthy person that wants best for this community, the best for their kids, the best for them, then your vote should go for Lilia Darbinyan. You know, Lilia Darbinyan's from Rancho Cordova, but she's also from the broader Rancho Cordova community.

So I understand both sides of Rancho Cordova and the different lifestyles that Rancho Cordova offers. And ultimately, again, my my family's being raised in this community, and that's that's the kind of community I want for everyone else.

Is there anything that we haven't covered about the campaign that you want to mention or leave the audience with?

I can't stress it enough that voting is super important with local elections. You know, I can't believe the amount of times I've spoke with elected officials and they tell me, you know, I won by three votes, I won by four votes.

And I know some people have

different perceptions on how elections go. And you know, I'm totally understanding of that. But when it comes to local politics, it's a much smaller spectrum. You know,

council members here I know in Rancho Cordova are more involved with the community than, let's say, the governor is or, you know, the president is.

But it's super important to, first of all, register to vote and then to actually vote. And hopefully the vote goes for Lilia Darbinyan.

Closing Thoughts

Awesome. Well, Lilia, I hope so as well. And thank you so much for coming on the podcast this year. More about your campaign, your vision than what you hope to see. The future of Rancho Cordova district five.

Thank you. Kory. Pleasure. Thank you very much.

I think the biggest takeaway from today's conversation is that elections really come down to the wire, especially the local ones, and they're the ones that probably impact our lives the most. So I encourage you to go vote regardless of who you vote for.

Just go and participate. I will do my part this time. I know I thought something that I may be the best at, but I'm going to do my part as well.

thank you for watching this episode of this podcast and we will

catch you on the next one.

And I'm ready to commit those hours and commit the time to make sure we have a cleaner, safer Rancho Cordova. I can make such a bigger difference in such a bigger community than just the community I was raised in. My family lives here too, and what I would want from my family is what I would want for everyone else's family.