Candidate for
Board Member; Placer County Water Agency; Division 5

Cheryl Maki is a familiar name in the Auburn area because she is so actively involved in the community. Probably, she is most well known as a former City Councilwoman and two term Mayor. "When I first opened my own business I recognized how important politics and legislation were and how they affected business owners," she explained. "I became pretty darn political after I bought my first business."

Cheryl and her husband Randy have successfully owned and operated Maki Heating and A/C since 1984. Cheryl is the CEO of the company and has worked full time in the business while at the same time pursuing her many community activities. I don't golf, I don't play tennis, I love Placer county, so my hobby is community service.

Cheryl is proud of the fact that she helped the City of Auburn through a severe downturn in the economy in the 90's. When she was first elected, the City of Auburn had no reserve fund in their budget and was laying off employees. During her tenure on the Auburn City Council Cheryl appointed herself (while serving as the Mayor) to the finance committee, which manages the budget for the city and makes recommendations to the city council. All 6 Mayors during her tenure on the city council re-appointed her to this very important committee as well. After two terms on the Auburn City Council, Cheryl instituted a permanent budget policy to commit a certain percentage of each budget to a reserve account. Upon retiring from the city council there was approximately 3 million dollars in reserves for future council members to rely upon for city emergencies. That budget policy is still in place today.

While on the Auburn City Council Cheryl was the driving force to build a skatepark in Auburn for the youth of the community. As the Mayor she visited several skateparks around the State. She conducted the "first ever" combined meeting of the Auburn Recreation District Board and the Auburn City Council to gain unanimous approval to move forward with the skatepark project. Cheryl's skatepark committee held several fundraisers over a period of three years, those fundraisers along with contributions from the City of Auburn and the Auburn Recreation District helped raise over $300,000 to build the Auburn Skatepark. This is a testament to Cheryl's ability to persevere in spite of objections and naysayers in the community that the park would and could not be built.

Her experience and efforts to manage resources and upgrades to the city of Auburn's aging waste water treatment plant, was acknowledged by her appointment to the State of California Regional Water Quality Control Board by the Governor in 2006. Her tenure was during a period that the regional board was advising Auburn and Placer County on the necessity of regionalizing their sewer treatment facilities. Placer County is now on the road to regionalization of their waste water treatment plants, with the City Auburn planning on it in the future. An accomplishment Cheryl is extremely proud of.

During her tenure on the Auburn City Council as well as after her retirement, Cheryl Maki was instrumental in raising funds at the State and Federal level to help finance and create the Auburn School Park Preserve behind City Hall. This land will be preserved in perpetuity for future generations of the Auburn area.

She also has served, or is presently serving on: the Auburn Economic Development Committee, Sierra Community College Management Advisory Committee, Local Agency Formation Commission, Auburn Historic Preservation Task Force, Placer County Air Pollution Control Board, Placer County Flood Control District, Placer- Nevada Waste Water JPA, the board of the Auburn Boys and Girls club, Chair of the Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center, just to name a few.

She is a member of Soroptimist International of Auburn, the American Association of University Women, The Auburn Chamber of Commerce, Auburn Community Cancer endowment Fund.

While Cheryl has been recognized with many honors and awards for her work in the community, nothing surprised and touched her heart more than being awarded the prestigious Vernon Gould McCann Award for service to her community in 2010.

Cheryl has a bachelor of Science degree in business management. Cheryl as two sons, Steven who works for Maki Heating & Air; and Anthony who works for Sierra College, and two grandchildren Andrew and Marissa.