A VIDEO that Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee posted on Facebook late last month promised to take viewers inside how the entertainment commentator juggles “pop culture and politics” — but not without a few scenes highlighting the discord that reigned on the City Council dais for much of 2025.
Titled “Jason Lee Unlocked,” the video blog isn’t the first time the District 6 councilmember — now entering his second year of his first term — has pledged to use the substantial social media platform he brought into office from his entertainment career to explain the inner workings of City Hall.
Among the most notable examples was a September video blog posted on Hollywood Unlocked’s Facebook page, in which Lee criticized Mayor Christina Fugazi and at one point compared her to President Donald Trump. In November, Fugazi said she felt threatened by the video and other social media claims by Lee. The City Council formed a committee to investigate the vice mayor’s conduct following a split vote.
Fugazi’s response to Lee’s comments on social media and elsewhere escalated in the final council meeting of 2025, when the mayor lambasted her vice mayor for giving a media quote she felt blamed her for a November shooting that killed four people and injured 13 others.
Balancing pop culture and politics
Last month’s 10-minute Facebook video by Lee opens with a shot of the vice mayor standing in council chambers at City Hall. The exact date the video was posted isn’t clear.
“A lot of people wonder, how do you balance pop culture and politics? How does Jason Lee from Hollywood Unlocked move back to Stockton and become the Vice Mayor of the city?” Lee says.
The video proceeds to show the vice mayor holding an entertainment-related business meeting, attending a Los Angeles-area Halloween party in an astronaut costume, going to Halloween events at the Sierra Vista Apartments and in Weston Ranch, and rooting for Edison High School at a football game, among other moments.
While the majority of the video followed Lee’s activities, with no mention of the conflict that has dominated City Council dynamics in recent months, a few moments did allude to council politics.
In one scene, Lee seems to be on the phone with another councilmember, whom he doesn’t name.
“They think you’re compromised, but they think you’re gullible enough to keep getting played,” Lee says. “Right now, we have the four votes to get everything we want done that the city needs. Me, you, (Michael) Blower and Mario (Enriquez). It’s not about us versus them.”
Content raises questions
The vice mayor didn’t immediately respond to questions about who he was talking to or what was being discussed. California open meeting laws bar councilmembers from conferring with a majority about public issues outside of council sessions. (There are seven members on Stockton City Council, thus four members would constitute a majority.) The video doesn’t show Lee discussing a specific council item.
When asked about the video, Councilmember Michele Padilla criticized it in a statement to Stocktonia.
“When private conversations are recorded, selectively edited, and turned into reality-show style content, it undermines trust and deepens division,” she said.
Padilla didn’t respond to a question about what part of the video she was referring to. Councilmember Brando Villapudua also criticized the video in a statement.
“When private conversations are recorded, selectively edited, and turned into reality-show style content, it undermines trust and deepens division.”
Councilmember Michele Padilla
The video’s final minutes include several more clips reflecting the division the council faced last year.
In one shot of the council dais, Fugazi can be heard speaking, while Enriquez can be seen insisting that he still has the floor to speak. The video also includes clips from council chambers of several people criticizing the council’s infighting during public comment.
Fugazi, Blower, Enriquez and Councilmember Mariela Ponce didn’t return requests for comment about the video.
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.
