# Folsom City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between Mike Kozlowski, Paul Kerfeld, or Chad Vander Veen for Folsom City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Folsom's City Council. The council has five members. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. They also appoint the city manager who runs day to day government. The council elects its own Mayor and Vice Mayor. It picks them from its five members each year. There is no separate Mayor of Folsom contest on this ballot. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Folsom - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/folsom-council-1 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 85 out of 100 (Strong), across 5 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Mike Kozlowski** — Folsom City Councilmember · Incumbent - **Paul Kerfeld** — Retired - **Chad Vander Veen** — Government Proposal Manager A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Three candidates are running for Folsom City Council District 1: incumbent Mike Kozlowski faces challengers Chad Vander Veen and Paul Kerfeld. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This person holds District 1's seat on Folsom's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, plus appointing the city manager who runs day-to-day government. Folsom's council elects its own Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its five district members each year rather than voters choosing a separate citywide mayor. The term is four years. Kozlowski is running on two prior terms of institutional experience and a specific record of regional funding wins through their seat on the Sacramento Area Council of Governments board. Vander Veen, a first-time candidate, is running largely on a deep local volunteer record across Folsom's schools, sports leagues, and city commissions, with a detailed platform built around fiscal transparency and neighborhood-level fixes. Kerfeld's campaign could not be independently characterized in this pass beyond their filed occupation. ## Mike Kozlowski The incumbent, first elected to the council in 2018 (at-large, before Folsom's 2022 shift to district elections) after previously serving as a Folsom utility commissioner. Kozlowski holds a Master's degree in Architecture, has worked on design and construction projects across the country, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects. They represent Folsom on the boards of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) and the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, and have coached track and field at Vista del Lago High School since 2008, including 10 years as head coach, with the boys' and girls' teams combining for 20 section and league championships under their leadership. **Strengths:** Two prior council terms and a seat on SACOG give Kozlowski more institutional experience and outside funding wins (cited $20M+ for Hwy 50 projects) than either challenger. **Trade-offs:** Kozlowski's record is the fullest on this ballot to weigh; growth priorities from their 2022 campaign were still in progress as of that account, not delivered. **Keep in mind:** No 2026 platform statement or campaign website was found for Kozlowski in this pass; their background here draws on a 2022 candidate Q&A, attributed and dated in text. ## Chad Vander Veen A 23-year Folsom resident (three neighborhoods: Ruth Court, American River Canyon South, and Sutter Woods) and senior consultant at Folsom-based Kiefer Consulting, where Vander Veen helps government agencies adopt cost-saving technology after an earlier career as a technology journalist. They have an extensive local volunteer record: Folsom National Little League coach and board member, Folsom Soccer Club/Lake Surf coach, Folsom Junior Bulldogs board member, Carl Sundahl PTA president (2019-2021), and city appointments to the Architecture Review Commission and the Arts & Culture Commission (chair). Their platform, "Trust. Transparency. Follow-Through," centers on fiscal responsibility, honest budgeting, housing affordability, and traffic and pedestrian safety, with District 1-specific commitments to safer school crossings, Historic District investment, and attracting a grocery store to underserved parts of the district. **Strengths:** A dense, specific record of hands-on civic volunteering across Folsom's schools, sports leagues, and appointed commissions gives Vander Veen direct, checkable local exposure. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected office, so no voting record to compare against Kozlowski's two council terms. **Keep in mind:** No Cal-Access committee could be verified for Vander Veen in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Paul Kerfeld The county's own candidate roster lists Kerfeld's occupation as "Retired." No campaign website, news coverage, or further biography was located for Kerfeld in this pass despite a real search effort -- domain guesses, a Wayback Machine check, a Ballotpedia lookup, and repeated search-engine queries all failed to surface anything more. **Strengths:** Not established by any source found in this pass. **Trade-offs:** No stated platform, prior public service, or news coverage was reachable in this pass -- an honest gap, not a claim Kerfeld lacks one. **Keep in mind:** No Cal-Access committee could be verified for Kerfeld in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Review notes - Chad Vander Veen's own campaign site for Folsom City Council District 1: a 23-year Folsom resident and Kiefer Consulting senior consultant, his "Trust. Transparency. Follow-Through" platform, and his local volunteer record may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [Sacramento County Voter Registration & Elections — Roster of Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election](https://elections.saccounty.gov/content/vre/us/en/campaign-services/candidate-report.html) 2. [City of Folsom — City Councilmembers directory (archived via Wayback Machine, Jan. 1, 2025 snapshot; folsom.ca.us itself 403s direct fetches): District 1 Councilmember Mike Kozlowski, District 2 Vice Mayor Justin Raithel, District 3 Mayor Sarah Aquino, District 4 Councilmember Barbara Leary, District 5 Councilmember Anna Rohrbough](https://web.archive.org/web/20250101101442/https://www.folsom.ca.us/government/city-council-and-commissions) 3. [City of Folsom — City Councilmembers directory (archived via Wayback Machine, Feb. 15, 2026 snapshot; folsom.ca.us itself 403s direct fetches): names, districts, terms ("Current Term ends November, 2026" for Kozlowski/D1, Aquino/D3, and Rohrbough/D5; "...2028" for Raithel/D2 and Leary/D4), and contact info for all five sitting councilmembers, with Raithel shown as Mayor and Rohrbough as Vice Mayor](https://web.archive.org/web/20260215202513/https://www.folsom.ca.us/government/city-council-and-commissions/city-councilmembers) 4. [Chad Vander Veen's own campaign site for Folsom City Council District 1: a 23-year Folsom resident and Kiefer Consulting senior consultant, his "Trust. Transparency. Follow-Through" platform, and his local volunteer record (Little League, PTA, city Arts & Culture and Architecture Review commissions)](https://chadforfolsom.com) 5. [Gold Country Media (The Folsom Telegraph) — "Q&A: Meet your 2022 Folsom City Council candidates, 7 vie for 3 seats" (archived via Wayback Machine): Mike Kozlowski's own account of his background — elected to the council in 2018, prior utility commissioner, Master's degree in Architecture, AIA member, SACOG and Greater Sacramento Economic Council board seats, and 2008–2022 Vista del Lago High School track and field coach](https://web.archive.org/web/20260207014207/https://goldmountaincanews.com/news/249831/qa-meet-your-2022-folsom-city-council-candidates-7-vie-for-3-seats/) ## The rest of the ballot Folsom City Council, District 1 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Folsom City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/folsom-council-1 (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.