For most of his life, Das Williams has been called “a young man in a hurry.”

So, it was a strange feeling inside the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors hearing room to hear Williams say goodbye, and for the first time in 21 years, not by his own choice.

Williams, who as a charming, fresh-faced 29-year-old stunned the political establishment to win a seat on the Santa Barbara City Council in 2003, at the time seemed destined for political longevity.

A progressive with local roots and an unparalleled work ethic at the time, Williams was dubbed a young man in a hurry because he was one. However, at 50 years old, Williams is exiting public office after he was ousted in March from a seat he held for eight years.

It wasn’t expected.

While all politicians are wrapped in an air of complexity, Williams wore the banner of “enigmatic” more than anyone. He somehow gave off a vibe of arrogance and humility, of selflessness and self-serving, all simultaneously.

“For most of my young life, I had a deep rage,” Williams said at his final Board of Supervisors meeting. “The earliest emotion I can remember feeling as a kid was rage at the realization that the world isn’t as it should be.”

Williams wasn’t born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. His bounced around the homes of his separated parents, growing up in Isla Vista and Ojai.

He didn’t play youth sports, have large friend circles or fit in at school. He attended seven elementary schools and dropped out of Dos Pueblos High School.

However, he said his experiences gave him grit and survival skills. Williams, from as far back as he can remember, has been on his own.

When his father, a former disc jockey and surf writer, moved from Isla Vista out of town, Williams didn’t want to leave his Santa Barbara and chose instead to live in his recreational vehicle, parked at Pershing Park.

Like so many people before him and after him, Santa Barbara City College saved his life.

He met some influential teachers — Black studies teacher David Lawyer, and political science teachers John Kay and Manou Eskandari. They guided him and steered his direction.

Next thing he knew, the skater and surfer kid from Isla Vista transferred to UC Berkeley, his “rage” shifting into anger with a purpose. Not long after that he was in South Africa, working for Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress.

Once Williams got the bug for public service, his anger was re-channeled. He earned a political science degree, then came back to the South Coast and earned an environmental studies master’s degree from UC Santa Barbara.

Locally, he worked as a field representative for then-Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson. His biggest political spark came in the form of a “No on Recall” campaign, working for then-Santa Barbara County Third District Supervisor Gail Marshall.

In a role that got political watchers talking, Williams was the lead organizer against the conservative recall campaign. Energetic and motivated, he canvassed, called and led a team of UCSB student troops to defend Marshall’s seat.

The awkward kid from Isla Vista tasted power and success. He had arrived.

Williams then turned his attention to the Santa Barbara City Council. He worked as an organizer for the progressive group Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), and started kicking up dust about Santa Barbara passing a living-wage ordinance, which at the time, in 2002, was about $17.25 an hour.

Williams, who lived in a condo on Santa Barbara’s Eastside, had a name in progressive political circles, but the idea that he could win a seat on the City Council, which had been dominated by people his grandfather’s age, was unthinkable.

However, Williams crafted a seemingly perfect campaign talking point at the time: neighborhood preservation, mixed with environmentalism.

He aligned himself with groups such as the Bungalow Haven District, the Citizens Planning Association and the Allied Neighborhood Association, and became the voice of unhappy homeowners who opposed new and large developments near their homes.

Moderate and conservative homeowners voted for him citywide.

On one hand, he appealed to the economic progressives, but also the established residents of the “Golden Triangle” — people who lived in San Roque/Samarkand, the Mesa and the Riviera.

He also ran alongside progressive feminist Helene Schneider, the top vote-getter that year, who would eventually become mayor, so he won a swath of white female voters.

A sharp mind for policy, coupled with his work ethic and ability to organize and canvas, Williams won a seat on the City Council, and the guy whom they wrote off as too ambitious, too soon was like a house cat unleashed into the wild.

He ran free, but there were political coyotes looming.

Williams was so high on himself that he made his first major political blunder: He ran for Second District county supervisor just two years into his council term. He was proving correct those people who called him a “young man in a hurry.”

The Democratic political establishment at the time had gotten behind Janet Wolf, but that didn’t stop Williams. He ran for the seat — and lost.

Now, the rising star from 2003 was having to do damage control for wanting to leave a seat just two years into his term. Williams easily won a second term on the council, but his recommitment to Santa Barbara didn’t stick.

The young man in a hurry had new mountains to climb. He jumped to the California State Assembly, where he served for six years, balancing a life in Sacramento and Santa Barbara.

Williams also got married, had two kids and served on several Assembly committees, including as chair of the Higher Education Committee.

Sacramento seemed like the perfect fit for the ambitious leftist. He worked his bills. He met with lawmakers, and he hustled.

“I got a reputation for being really willing to work my bills, which people respect,” Williams said. “That means I was able to talk to every single legislator, so that’s 119 conversations, minimum, even if you just talk to each of them once, which obviously committee heads you want to talk to more than once.”

Williams drove policy on higher education, gun safety laws and the environment, including capping abandoned oil wells.

However, in the Assembly, he made a second political blunder, one that got statewide headlines.

Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, transferred Williams to a smaller office after he missed a July 3 Assembly session. His staff was also forced to work out of different areas.

Williams didn’t have an excused absence for the meeting. He attended his mother-in-law’s wedding in Hawaii, missing a key Assembly vote. It was a political mistake for someone wanting to build political power and rise the ranks in Sacramento.

After six years in Sacramento, Williams chose to come home.

When Salud Carbajal decided to run for U.S. Congress, to replace the retiring Lois Capps, Williams won Carbajal’s endorsement for his seat, and somehow, the kid from Isla Vista wound up winning the First District supervisor’s seat, representing Montecito, Carpinteria and Santa Barbara.

It was never a perfect fit.

Williams did win over many in the district. His willingness to network, schmooze and make people feel important, even if it was only through brief interactions, earned him popularity among a crowd of wealthy, affluent mansion owners who didn’t necessarily know or care about his personal story.

His eight years were marked by natural disasters and political mayhem.

The Thomas Fire, the largest California wildfire at the time, hit in 2017. The debris flows that killed 23 people in Montecito followed the next year. The community experienced multiple flooding evacuations and warnings.

“Throughout these times of hardship, Das has maintained a close connection to community leaders, and organizations that were working to support the community through these crises,” said John Abraham Powell, a member of the Montecito Fire Protection District board and co-founder of the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade.

Powell said Williams was digging with the first 50 members of the Bucket Brigade after the debris flow.

Williams’ major stumbling block, however, came in the form of cannabis, and a county policy that led to a stunning drop in political support.

Laura Capps challenged Williams for the First District supervisor’s seat. She pointed out that Williams took campaign contributions from the cannabis industry, at a time when the county was regulating the industry.

She called for finance spending limits. It was a high-profile, very public campaign, but it forced Williams to play hard and run a serious defense to keep his seat.

Williams defeated Capps by about 1,500 votes, but the cannabis issue lingered.

Carpinteria Valley residents complained of noxious odors from the farms. They pushed for stronger odor control and carbon scrubbers. Williams was resistant, and while he pushed for stronger controls, he did not drive policy making scrubbers mandatory.

The following year, Capps ran for the open Second District supervisor’s seat and won.

Although Williams thought he dodged a bullet with no rematch from Capps, a sleeper candidate emerged in the form of Roy Lee, a Carpinteria city councilman.

Lee, a kind, quiet, humble man, jumped into the contest. Most people didn’t give him a chance. More importantly, neither did Williams nor his campaign team. Williams ran the most low-key, uninspired campaign of the 11 times he had been elected.

Lee, with less money and a smaller team of volunteers, pulled off the political upset. He promised to push for mandatory carbon scrubbers in the campaign. Some of the people who supported Williams in the past didn’t endorse him or stayed out of the contest.

“I put [guards] on what kind of contributions I would take,” Williams said. “I never take oil money, or tobacco money, or some other ones I swore off.”

Williams said his goal with the cannabis industry was to put the black market out of business and regulate the industry to make it safer and less exploitive of workers.

Still, he said he understands people’s objections.

“I am sorry that it undermined their confidence in me,” Williams said.

A combination of an uprising of voters in the Carpinteria Valley over cannabis odor, Lee’s popularity in Carpinteria and Williams’ underwhelming campaign were all factors.

Montecito voters were also upset over the decision to remove six ring nets in creeks above Montecito to stop debris flows.

The Project for Resilient Communities removed the nets after it was unable to reach a financial agreement with the county. The issue never went to the Board of Supervisors for a vote, and some Montecito residents blamed Williams for not fighting hard enough on behalf of the county to save the nets.

The thought of Williams defeating someone with a political name such as Capps, and then losing to Lee, shocked most people.

Williams had been in the mix of names for the state Senate or Congress, once the current officeholders, state Sen. Monique Limón and Rep. Carbajal, respectively, moved on.

Williams also faced a severe backlash from previous supporters.

Prominent names such as former District Attorney Joyce Dudley, former Santa Barbara Police Chief Barney Melekian and retired Santa Barbara Fire Chief Pat McElroy took their silent opposition to Williams public and endorsed Lee.

Williams lost endorsements from key community groups, such as the Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County and the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee. The energy that had surrounded Williams’ campaigns for so long had weakened.

There were earlier signs. He had applied to serve on the California Coastal Commission in 2021. Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Meagan Harmon also applied for the seat.

Several of Williams’ opponents started a letter-writing campaign to Gov. Gavin Newsom to block Williams, while Harmon had her own allies supporting her. Harmon was eventually appointed to the seat.

Williams plans to announce his next job, which most likely will be in the environmental energy industry, in January. He has not ruled out a future run at public office after spending some time away from the intense public eye.

He had his final meeting as an elected official on Dec. 17.

Seven members of the public spoke on his behalf. Among them was Marshall, the former supervisor he defended in the recall campaign.

“You are going to have lots of accolades,” Marshall said. “Your career will be discussed. Many will have much to say about you, but I am the only voice from 24 years ago. When I was served with a petition of recall, you stood shoulder to shoulder for the longest time during that dark period. You have my gratitude.”

All four of his colleagues also spoke fondly of him. Santa Barbara County Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, Williams’ biggest ally on the board in the area of cannabis policy, fought back tears when talking.

“I didn’t want to like Das when I first got here,” Lavagnino said. “All I ever heard was that there is this crazy guy down in Santa Barbara.”

Lavagnino said he learned about sustainability.

“Das wears clothes that are made in the USA, by union workers, who are being paid a living wage, that are working in a solar-powered workspace, with graywater integration. They don’t drive their electric vehicles to work because they have actually transformed their workplace into a living space at night they eat food from their communal garden,” Lavagnino joked.

Lavagnino, a Republican, said he drives a hybrid because of Williams, and he credited him for bringing Dignity Moves housing to Santa Maria. He said he appreciated Williams’ willingness to work with conservatives such as himself and Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson.

Lavagnino said Williams made him a better public servant.

“I guess the best thing to say about somebody is I am better person for serving with you,” Lavagnino said.

Williams opened his comments at the board meeting by saying, “The Bible calls this an embarrassment of riches.”

While no one in the room acknowledged any of the events that led to Williams’ unsuccessful re-election, Williams did so obliquely.

“I don’t believe I made every call right,” Williams said. “When I represented you in the Legislature, you vote on a couple thousand bills a year, and you get some of them wrong. But I also know it isn’t about getting every call right.”

Williams said getting it right every time is “impossible.”

As he stepped down from office, he showed a tinge of that youthful enthusiasm, ambition and hope that circled him when he was a so-called young man in a hurry in his 20s.

He acknowledged that sometimes he comes across as a contradiction.

“I think it’s partially because I grew up in a struggling, sometimes one-parent household without any money. To me, incremental change does save the world,” Williams said, “and a place like the county is a great place to make that constant, incremental change.”

He said all of the mistakes made as a society have been about one person making a difference the wrong way.

“Every achievement we can make is the result of one person making a difference, and that, collectively with other people making that decision, can fundamentally change society,” Williams said.

“We’ve got big challenges, but we will make a difference. You will make a difference.”