Hold El Dorado Accountable Files Voter Initiative To Stop Automatic Pay Raises for Electeds and Top-Level County Administrative Staff
Volunteers Needed For All-Volunteer Petition Signature Drive
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, February 26, 2026
Contact: Kristin Hyde, 206-491-0773
Placerville, CA – Today Hold El Dorado Accountable, a coalition of taxpayers, El Dorado county workers, and community members announced they’ve filed a new ballot initiative with the County elections office. The group is calling for volunteers to help gather the estimated 13,000 El Dorado County voter signatures needed to get the initiative on the November 2026 ballot.
Voter approval of the initiative would end automatic pay raises for high level County officials, which backers say was never the intention of Charter 504 amendment approved in 1995 by a nearly 70 point margin. The initiative would affirm the original intent of Amendment 504 to provide regular cost of living wage increases for non-elected peace officers to keep salaries for positions like Deputy Sheriff, Captain, Undersheriff, and others competitive with neighboring area police and sheriff departments.
The change would remove the loophole exploited by the El Dorado Board of Supervisors to inappropriately apply Section 504 to automatically raise wages for elected officials, lawyers, and highly paid administrators by an average of $15 an hour, or $31,000 a year each.
The initiative by Hold El Dorado Accountable would:
Reinstate the voters’ intention to restrict automatic cost of living increases to only those positions specifically named in Initiative 504.
Protect public safety by restating competitive wage standards for non-elected sworn peace officers like Deputy Sheriffs, attracting and retaining qualified law enforcement officers to protect El Dorado County residents.
Protect taxpayers by prohibiting elected officials, county executives, and administrative officials from enriching themselves by misusing the Deputy Sheriff's wage standards, costing taxpayers millions of dollars in future expenditures, and ensuring public funds are spent on essential community services.
Jennifer Rimoldi, an office engineer in El Dorado Transportation Department and President of El Dorado County Employees AFSCME Local 1 union, shared why she supports taking this initiative to El Dorado County voters:
“Our elected Supervisors are exploiting a loophole to give raises to the highest paid administrative staff like the County Counsel and Chief Administrative Officers, despite our County’s budget deficit and cuts to county services like road maintenance and senior programs. Thousands of county workers who provide essential county services like safety inspections and keep our roads, parks, and public facilities clean, are struggling to make ends meet. This initiative to the people will give voters the power to right the Board of Supervisors’ wrongs and ensure accountability to taxpayers.”
Frank Adair, a member of the Operating Engineers Local 3 union, shared:
“Enough is enough. El Dorado County voters deserve transparency, fairness and accountability. The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has slashed vital community services – snowplowing, park programs, senior day care services, juvenile treatment centers, the Aquatic Center and more – meanwhile, they are rubber-stamping hundreds of thousands of dollars of pay raises, diverting taxpayer dollars from public services and into the bank accounts of a handful of highly paid officials.”
Hold El Dorado Accountable will soon kick off a volunteer signature gathering campaign to qualify the voter initiative for the ballot. Community members interested in volunteering can sign up at HoldElDoradoAccountable.com
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