‘We need to restore hope:’ Realtor running for Sean Loloee’s seat on Sacramento council
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Former California assemblyman running for Sean Loloee’s Sacramento City Council seat
‘We need to restore hope:’ Realtor running for Sean Loloee’s seat on Sacramento council
On a recent drive along a two-mile stretch of Del Paso Boulevard, Stephen Lamar Walton counted the number of streetlights that had burned out.
The total was 35.
He emailed the city’s public works director, he said, who sent crews to fix them within three weeks.
It was the type of service Walton wants to be able to do provide the residents of the underserved north Sacramento district more frequently — as its next council member.
“It should’ve never got to that level,” Walton, 42, said of the streetlights. “We need to restore hope in District 2 so we need to see tangible change at the base level.”
Raised in Del Paso Heights, and a 1999 graduate of Grant Union High School, Walton moved to Los Angeles for about 11 years to pursue acting. He moved back to north Sacramento in 2019, he said, and is now a real estate agent living in Old North Sacramento.
On the topic of homelessness, Walton said he does not want the city to open more shelters in the district. The day after former Councilman Sean Loloee resigned amid facing federal labor criminal charges, the city announced it was opening a new large homeless shelter in the district, on Roseville Road, for up to 240 people.
But instead of filling the new shelter solely with homeless people living on the streets in north Sacramento, it moved dozens of people from the Miller Park Safe Ground, where Broadway meets the Sacramento River, which the city closed at the same time. Walton said the city should have kept both sites open and given the homeless people living in north Sacramento first dibs at the new tiny homes.
“We have people living in inhumane conditions on the bike trail right there and they didn’t get the first refusal,” Walton said. “To me that is a travesty.”
Walton is endorsed by Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, who is suing the city, alleging it’s not clearing homeless encampments fast enough.
In addition to the new Roseville Road shelter, the city also has two other shelters in the district, on Auburn Boulevard and on Colfax Street. Some council districts have no large city shelters.
Walton said other districts should open shelters, as there are still thousands on the streets, but he does not want to cut the police budget in order to fund them.
The issues with Loloee is partly what inspired Walton to run, he said.
Loloee did not live in the north Sacramento district he was elected to represent, and instead lived in his wife’s $1.4 million Granite Bay house, the U.S. Department of Justice in December announced, confirming a June 2022 Bee report.
“What we went through the last four years has really pained and hurt the community,” Walton said. “I moved back specifically to help the community.”
Walton lives in a house he owns in Old North Sacramento, he said. His family has been there for 80 years.
“Growing up here I’ve heard all these beautiful stories about how Del Paso Boulevard used to be a thriving corridor with theaters, ice skating rink and so many eateries,” Walton said. “I want to see that in my lifetime. They want to see what they speak of come into fruition.”
Walton has the second most cash on hand of any candidate in the race, after Roger Dickinson, with nearly $20,000 as of Jan. 20. He has received big checks from developers and landlord groups.
The primary will be held March 5. If no single candidate receives a majority of the vote, the winner will be determined in a Nov. 5 runoff during the general election. Ballots will be delivered to voters’ mailboxes next week.
This story was originally published January 30, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘We need to restore hope:’ Realtor running for Sean Loloee’s seat on Sacramento council."
