Four days after Sacramento City Council member Sean Loloee pleaded not guilty to federal charges, it remains unclear whether he will heed calls to resign.
The council and Mayor Darrell Steinberg can’t suspend him, a city spokesperson said, but the U.S. Department of Justice identifying Loloee’s primary residence as Granite Bay renews questions about whether he can legally represent North Sacramento.
Loloee’s attorney’s office on Tuesday said it had no update since providing a statement to CapRadio on Friday. Loloee has said he plans to continue serving as a council member while fighting the allegations. He represents council District 2, which includes Old North Sacramento, Hagginwood, Woodlake and Del Paso Heights.
He and Karla Montoya, the general manager of his Viva Supermarket grocery store businesses, are facing a 25-count indictment. The indictment alleges that they obstructed investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor, falsified immigration documents, withheld overtime wages and fraudulently obtained COVID-19 business relief funds.
Steinberg on Friday implied he wanted Loloee to resign within 24 hours. In a written statement Tuesday, the mayor said he is talking with Loloee regularly.
“I remain confident he will do the right thing for himself, his district and the city,” Steinberg said in the statement. “I will have no further comment for the next several days.”
Council member Mai Vang urged Loloee to resign on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying the allegations compromise his ability to represent the city.
“I strongly urge Mr. Loloee to do the right thing and uphold the integrity of his office by resigning,” Vang said on Friday. “If he does not, Mayor/Council must take next steps to remove him.”
But the mayor and council don’t have the authority to remove Loloee, according to city spokesperson Wendy Klock-Johnson. She added it’s unlikely City Manager Howard Chan can remove a council member given that Chan reports to the council.
City code also says that if a council member misses five consecutive regular council meetings, their seat will be vacated, unless the council excuses the absences.
If Loloee’s council seat becomes vacant, Klock-Johnson said city code would require the council to make an appointment. The city wouldn’t hold a special election because the November general election for the District 2 seat is less than a year away.
City code doesn’t say how long the city would need to accept applications for an appointment, Klock-Johnson said. The council, city attorney and city clerk might discuss the issue if the need for an application period arises, she added. An appointee would serve the remainder of Loloee’s term, which ends in December 2024.
If Loloee resigns, it wouldn’t affect the March primary election for the District 2 seat. Even if one of the nine candidates wins the primary election with a majority vote, the winner won’t be sworn into office until December 2024, Klock-Johnson said.
Residency questions renewed
The indictment has revived questions about whether Loloee meets residency requirements of both the city charter and California law, however. City and state laws require council members to live in the district they represent.
The Department of Justice identified Loloee as a resident of Granite Bay, located in Placer County, in a press release Friday. During the arraignment hearing, a judge ordered Loloee to live at his wife’s Granite Bay house because Montoya is living at the home Loloee owns in Hagginwood.
In June 2022, The Sacramento Bee reported Loloee lived in Granite Bay instead of in his district. But an independent investigation by a local attorney concluded that Loloee’s primary residence was the Hagginwood house. A redacted version of the report claimed Loloee primarily lived in the Hagginwood house with an employee and the employee’s family instead of with his wife and children in Granite Bay.
California law outlines a process to resolve disputes over whether public officials have the legal right to hold office, according to the Attorney General’s Office. A private person or a local agency can file what’s called a quo warranto application to the attorney general.
If the attorney general grants leave to sue, the person or agency who sent the application can file a lawsuit in superior court. The court could then decide whether a public official has the legal right to hold office.
It’s unclear whether a quo warranto legal action could be completed before Loloee’s term ends in December 2024, however.
The next regular council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 9 and Loloee’s next hearing for the federal indictment is set for Feb. 12, 2024. If Loloee is found guilty, he could face a $250,000 fine for each count and be subject to time in prison.
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