Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee has lost the public’s trust. He should resign

Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee has hardly rebutted The Bee’s increasingly irrefutable reporting showing that he lives not only outside his district but likely in an entirely different city and county. Rather, Loloee’s response has amounted to a web of lies disproved by public records and even his own remarks in interviews with local media.

Loloee, who represents mostly low-income neighborhoods in North Sacramento, has agreed to a request from Mayor Darrell Steinberg to provide a public report on his residency at an upcoming council meeting. But Loloee has had ample time to get his story straight. He launched his council campaign three years ago, and The Bee’s first story on the issue appeared 11 days ago. It seems unlikely that he has been holding on to persuasive exculpatory evidence for this long.

Elected officials can’t be effective once they lose the public’s trust, and there is evidence that Loloee has lost the faith even of formerly ardent supporters. He should resign, and if he is unwilling to do so for the sake of the district and the city, the City Council must take steps to remove him from office.

The Bee’s Theresa Clift recently reported that Loloee’s family claimed its sole homeowners tax exemption for a $1.4 million home in Granite Bay that his wife owns. Loloee has never claimed the exemption for the home he owns within his council district in Hagginwood, where he is also registered to vote. The councilman purchased the property in 2019, shortly before his run for political office.

Under California law, families can receive the tax break only for their “principal place of residency.” A longtime Sacramento broker told The Bee that “when the owners live in the property, I rarely see that they do not claim a homeowners exemption.”

Depending on which version of Loloee’s story one believes, he could be violating some combination of tax law, voting law and — given the number of vehicles illegally parked on the Hagginwood property — city code. Worse, a federal lawsuit recently filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleges he underpaid employees of his grocery stores, violated child labor laws, threatened to deport employees who cooperated with an investigation and interfered with federal investigations spanning 13 years.

Beyond his legal exposure, Loloee’s dishonesty has compromised his elective service. He has made a mockery of the oath he took in December 2020, when he was sworn in at his wife’s Placer County home, with a barrage of falsehoods. If the public report he is crafting contains more of the same, he should consider sparing himself and the city the trouble.

Loloee’s North Sacramento district encompasses neighborhoods where at least 42% of households struggle to afford essentials such as housing, food and child care, according to United Ways of California’s real cost analysis. It’s an area where decades of economic disinvestment and government neglect have opened the door for political actors with ulterior motives to exploit public cynicism.

Meaningful representation can make a tangible difference in the lives of District 2 residents and chart a path that inspires confidence in North Sacramento’s future. Loloee’s constituents deserve that much. If Loloee is unwilling to step aside, the council must act in the best interests of his district and the city.

This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.