Report clearing Sacramento Councilman Loloee tells different story than what he told media

For months, Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee has maintained he resides in a home in his North Sacramento district, despite evidence that another family lived there and that Loloee’s family lives in Granite Bay. And on Wednesday, a law firm hired by the city of Sacramento to investigate the matter issued a report exonerating the embattled first-term councilman.

Throughout the 20-page report by Sacramento attorney Melinda Guzman are statements and evidence backing up Loloee’s claims. The report paints a picture of a man seeking to protect his family, while respecting his wife’s wishes to maintain the familial traditions of their native Iran by owning a separate home.

Loloee and his wife have long lived apart, sometimes at different ends of the state, Guzman found. Both are immigrants from Iran, and their personal and “socio-political” values have led them to maintain a level of independence perhaps unfamiliar to many others. Loloee also sought to protect his family, Guzman’s report says, both from a deadly pandemic and a tumultuous environment in which local elected officials are the target of threats.

So why didn’t Loloee just say all of that in the first place?

Instead, Loloee told The Sacramento Bee in June that his family had lived in the North Sacramento home on Nogales Street for months, “seven days a week.”

He said he and his family briefly lived to another home in his City Council district for a time, and then returned to Nogales Street.

He said a man who lived in the home was a “former tenant,” when Guzman’s report suggests that man and his family have instead lived in the North Sacramento home since 2020.

He said he was sworn into office at a friend’s home in East Sacramento’s Fab 40’s, not the home in Granite Bay, despite photographs suggesting otherwise. Then he said where he was sworn in was “nobody’s business.”

He also told The Bee in June that the home in Granite Bay had been empty for two years.

Loloee did not respond to text messages, phone calls or emails seeking comment late last week. On Wednesday, after the report was released, Loloee said in an email he was “grateful for those who withheld judgment until the review was completed.”

“This review brings to a close a considerably difficult period for me, my family, and my friends,” the statement read. “With these distractions behind us, we will move forward to address the many challenges ahead of us, including restoring our local economy, combatting our homelessness crisis, and the learning loss that’s been especially tough on communities of color.”

Loloee faces a potential recall campaign as he seeks to rebuild trust in what is arguably the city’s most under-resourced council district. It’s one of eight districts in the city, and it includes Old North Sacramento, Hagginwood, Woodlake, Del Paso Heights and part of Robla.

The good news is that “his district is one where he could drive around everyday and hit an event (to speak with constituents),” said political consultant Andrew Acosta, who has helped guide several City Council campaigns, including Loloee’s in 2020.

“You see people who have made mistakes in the past and rebounded,” Acosta said. “At the end of the day, it’s your job to show people you’re fighting for them.”

Loloee appears to have a tough battle ahead in reconnecting with his constituents. Many North Sacramento residents are “very skeptical and very disappointed” in the investigation’s findings, said Ramona Landeros, who ran against Loloee in 2020.

“With the residency issue, the community has spoken about it and has said we’ve never seen him there,” Landeros said.

Upset win on Sacramento council

Loloee, who owns two grocery stores in North Sacramento, defeated former Councilman Allen Warren in 2020. He was part of a wave of newcomers to City Hall elected that year with limited political experience. He was a bit of an unknown outside his district.

The investigation into his residency shows Loloee found a presence in the district in 2008, when he opened a Viva Supermarket on Norwood Avenue. At the time, he was living in a Natomas-area townhouse owned by his wife, while she lived in Southern California.

Loloee’s wife sold the Natomas townhouse in “2017/2018” after purchasing a home in Granite Bay, according to Guzman’s findings. Loloee moved into the Granite Bay home and commuted into Sacramento, but “that stopped once he purchased the Nogales Street home by 2019.”

The investigation found that Loloee’s wife and children lived in the Nogales Street home “during parts of 2019 and 2020.” The family lived there for about six months and one of Loloee’s sons walked precincts during the councilman’s campaign for office.

The family’s transition out of North Sacramento began in 2020, according to the report.

Guzman’s report stated the Loloee family “did not shelter in place together during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic but did visit each other.” It also reports Loloee’s wife moved out of the Nogales Street house in 2020, despite Loloee’s claims to reporters two years later that his wife and children still lived there full-time.

“She received prank telephone calls on her cellular telephone asking her to move out of the district and to ‘go back to where you came from,’ someone vandalized their home with graffiti, and someone who claimed to be an officer called her cellular telephone and offered to help her move away from the Councilman who he described as an abusive man,” Guzman wrote.

Loloee’s wife stopped staying in the Nogales Street home altogether due to “safety concerns” stemming from threats made against local elected officials, according to the investigation.

Report: Why Loloee family keeps two homes

The family’s home in Granite Bay fueled much of the speculation that Loloee did not live in his district. Those concerns heightened after The Bee reported that Loloee appeared to take his oath of office in the Granite Bay home.

However, Guzman’s investigation suggests ownership of the Granite Bay home stemmed from the Loloees’ family values and traditions.

“Because of social, religious, and political issues in Iran, (Loloee’s wife) holds strong feelings about the need to be respected and recognized as a professional woman and to safeguard her family, education, and assets,” the report states.

“This couple has intended to have separate domiciles during their marriage for personal, socio-political, and/or business reasons and not regarding the council seat,” Guzman wrote