Exclusive: Embattled Sacramento councilman Sean Loloee will not seek re-election
Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee will not seek re-election to his North Sacramento seat.
Loloee, whose grocery stores and homes were raided Thursday by federal agents, told state Sen. Angelique Ashby in late August or early September that he would not seek re-election next year, Ashby said. Ashby is a former councilwoman.
The councilman also told another individual with knowledge of the situation on Monday that he would not run. Two additional individuals also reported similar conversations with Loloee. All three individuals asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Loloee did not return text messages or phone calls from The Sacramento Bee Thursday or Friday. However, his chief of staff Veronica Smith told The Bee Friday morning that Loloee has not been charged or detained in connection to the federal raid.
Former state lawmaker Roger Dickinson, former Twin Rivers Unified School Board member Ramona Landeros, and Del Paso Heights residents Kim Davie and Alicia Bledsoe have announced plans to run for the North Sacramento seat.
The primary election will be held March 5. If no single candidate receives at least 50.01% of the vote, the winner will be determined in the general election Nov. 5.
Meanwhile, Loloee’s term ends in December 2024. Sacramento Central Labor Council Executive Director Fabrizio Sasso has called for Loloee to resign prior to the end of his term. If he does, the council could possibly have Mayor Darrell Steinberg represent the district, as he’s currently representing East Sacramento, or hold a special election.
The raid follows a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor that alleged Loloee threatened workers at his Viva Supermarket chain by saying he would report to immigration authorities those individuals that lacked legal status in the U.S. The lawsuit included allegations dating back to 2009 that Loloee underpaid employees, employed minors in hazardous occupations, and interfered with multiple federal investigations. It named 66 employees, and alleged violations at four stores: Rancho Cordova, Dixon and the two locations in the North Sacramento district Loloee represents — one in Del Paso Heights and one on Norwood Avenue.
Those stores were closed Thursday by federal agents but were reopened by Friday morning.
Federal agents on Thursday also visited a house Loloee owns in North Sacramento’s Hagginwood neighborhood, his office in Natomas, and his wife’s Granite Bay house.
Loloee was sworn in to the council in December 2020 after defeating incumbent Allen Warren. In June 2022 the Bee reported that it did not appear Loloee lived in the district he represents, which includes many low income neighborhoods, but instead lives in his wife’s $1.4 million Granite Bay home. A city-commissioned outside investigation found that he indeed lives in the Hagginwood home with his employees, where 911 calls for parties and guns are frequent, and over nine vehicles and an excavator have been parked in the yard and driveway for years.
This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 10:42 AM.
