Councilman Sean Loloee is a joke and he’s made Sacramento the punchline | Opinion
Embattled Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee now faces a federal investigation that he has not adequately paid the employees of his private grocery stores. His ability to serve out his term for another 13 months is in serious question, and his only public concern going forward should be the North Sacramento council district that desperately needs effective representation.
With primaries looming on March 5, Loloee has not yet announced if he is going to seek another term in office, but he shouldn’t. It’s time for him to do his council district and the broader city a favor by facing the serious charges against him with some shred of dignity. Someone who’s the target of federal investigators should not be serving the interests of North Sacramento.
This can’t happen soon enough.
As if the ever-mounting litany of investigations, police actions, verbally abusive tirades and morally dubious decisions on the dais weren’t enough, on Thursday, federal authorities from what appeared to be multiple agencies shut down several of Loloee’s Viva Supermarkets during an apparent raid. Federal agents simultaneously paid visits to two homes the Loloee family owns, in Hagginwood and Granite Bay.
There have been guns and fights reported at the councilman’s Hagginwood home, lawsuits from previous employees who allege he withheld their pay and violated child labor laws, and I, personally, bore witness to multiple verbal attacks by the councilman toward women who dared question him in public. At a local event in Natomas last year, he was caught on video verbally accosting and following a young woman whose mother was a part of an employee lawsuit against him several years ago.
Nor would this be the first time he’d been in trouble on a federal level: Investigators have previously reported that he violated federal minimum wage, overtime compensation, record keeping and child labor laws. Another investigation three years ago found that he allegedly violated those laws again. A third investigation looked into allegations of coercion toward his employees.
What other Sacramento council member has garnered this much turmoil by his own hand in such a short period of time?
Loloee has been an ongoing, city-wide embarrassment to the position he holds, to the people of Sacramento and especially to the people of District 2. Whatever guard rails the city thinks it has to deal with a councilmember like Loloee have been completely ineffective.
We don’t yet know if charges will be brought against the councilman, but know this: No one who is under federal investigation should hold responsibility for the city’s budget, employees or laws.
By Thursday evening, the Sacramento Central Labor Council AFL-CIO had already publicly called for Loloee’s immediate resignation, in an open letter:
“We believe that, given the gravity of these allegations, your persistent legal troubles, and their potential impact on the residents and workers of Sacramento, especially those in District 2, it is in the best interest of both your constituents and the principles of ethical governance that you immediately resign from your position as council member,” the letter reads. “This is a necessary step to maintain the integrity of public office and to prevent any further harm to the people you have sworn to represent.” Well said.
The letter was signed by the labor council’s executive director, Fabrizio Sasso, and it was sent to Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the other members of the Sacramento City Council.
This farce needs to end now. When — not if — it finally does, good riddance to a clown of a councilman who only ever proved he was unfit to serve.
