Former Twin Rivers Unified School Board member running for Sacramento City Council
Ramona Landeros, former Twin Rivers Unified School Board member, is running for Sacramento City Council.
It’s not the first time Landeros is running for the seat. She ran in 2020, but did not make it into the general election, and was ultimately defeated by Councilman Sean Loloee.
Landeros has been critical of Loloee, saying he does not actually live in the Hagginwood house where he says he lives, and has mistreated Latino workers at his grocery store, as a federal agency has alleged. The Sacramento Bee last year reported that it did not appear Loloee lived in the Hagginwood house where he said he lived, and could instead be living in his wife’s $1.4 million Granite Bay house.
The North Sacramento district comprises some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, including Del Paso Heights, where Landeros owns a home. She has lived in North Sacramento for 42 years — a fact she will be highlighting in her campaign, especially if Loloee runs again.
“I love North Sacramento,” Landeros said. “My family had lived here for generations now. We’re invested, we’re committed. My children have been football coaches at Grant High School. I really do have that investment here.”
Landeros is founder of the Benito Juarez Association, which since 2017 has provided food drives, legal aid, and other services to help Latino families.
If elected, she wants to provide more city incentives to attract new small businesses, especially along Marysville Boulevard, she said.
“I know Raleys is not gonna come out here, I know Safeway is not gonna come out here, but if we can really empower our small businesses to thrive and do well, that’s really where our strength is,” she said.
To address homelessness, she wants the city to open more sanctioned campsites called Safe Grounds, like Camp Resolution, which is at the corner of Colfax Street and Arden Way on a city-owned vacant lot. Loloee has not publicly announced any new Safe Ground sites he is pursuing.
“It’s a good example of what the city can do,” Landeros said. “If we can do that and get people off the streets, out of the doorways of businesses, I think that would be helpful.”
She would be in favor of the council shifting some money away from the police department, set to have an all-time-high budget of $228 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1, and toward a non-police response for nonviolent 911 calls. The city in 2020 created the Department of Community Response for this purpose, but it has not so far resulted in a reduction in the police budget.
Landeros is unsure whether she would accept police union campaign money if offered it. She would accept developer money only from developers who are building affordable housing in Sacramento, she said.
Loloee did not immediately return a message asking if he will run for re-election.
Tamika L’Ecluse, American River Flood Control Board member, has also announced she is running for the seat. Like Landeros, L’Ecluse has also unsuccessfully run for council before, but in a different district. Former Democratic state Assemblyman Roger Dickinson is also considering a run, he has told The Bee.
The primary will be held March 5. If no single candidate gets at least 50.01% of the vote, the general election for the District 2 will be held Nov. 5.
This story was originally published June 5, 2023 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Former Twin Rivers Unified School Board member running for Sacramento City Council."
