Roy Lee is not Das Williams, and that’s what Lee wants voters to know.

Lee, a member of the Carpinteria City Council and a candidate for the First District seat on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, describes himself as someone who tells the truth and genuinely cares about the community.

That campaign message is what Lee hopes is enough to propel him into a seat on the board: He’s running as “not Das.”

“He has done a bad job,” Lee said. “Das doesn’t represent us. He represents his own self-interests. He just jumps around like a frog on a leap pad until he gets where he wants.”

Lee is an underdog in his bid to win a seat on the board.

Williams, a prolific campaigner and fundraiser, has served in office for 21 years, as a member of the Santa Barbara City Council and the state Assembly, and as a Santa Barbara County supervisor.

Williams has raised 15 times as much money as Lee in his bid to win a third term on the board.

“Das is not there for the right reasons,” Lee said. “He is just there for his own self-benefit, and that is not what I want in a representative.”

Lee said it was never his plan to run for supervisor, but that he became disillusioned by Williams and what he calls advocacy for cannabis growers and developers.

He knows the challenge is great, but for the Taiwan immigrant, it’s just the latest obstacle to overcome in his 41 years.

Lee strikes a pose of an everyday man, a hardworking small-business owner who serves in office as his form of public service.

He was 3 years old when his mother and father came from Taiwan into the United States. His parents were farmers; his father raised livestock, and his mother grew bananas.

They came to the United States for a better life. Lee and his wife, Tina, worked at The Ming Dynasty restaurant in Goleta.

They have three children: Tyson, 16, Madison, 14, and Elle, 12.

The family, along with his Uncle Fu, own the Uncle Chen Chinese restaurant in Carpinteria. Lee’s brother, Brian, is a Carpinteria mailman.

When the family came to the United States, they lived in Goleta, and Lee attended La Patera Elementary School.

A new immigrant who did not speak English, Lee said he confronted playground bullies.

“I was the only Asian in school,” Lee said of that period. “I was made fun of a lot, but I don’t let that define who I am.”

He persevered, and attended Goleta Valley Junior High School and Dos Pueblos High School. As he got older, the situations turned positive.

Lee grew up in the restaurant business, following his father. He worked at China Pavilion on De la Vina Street in Santa Barbara before the family purchased the Uncle Chen restaurant.

“We worked hard, we saved, we assimilated,” Lee said.

His style, manner and approach to people and the issues have earned the support of one of the most prominent political names in town: former Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley.

“Roy is not an experienced campaigner or slick politician,” Dudley said. “Instead, he is a hardworking man who looks directly into your eyes, listens carefully to what you have to say, and then responds to you directly with compassion, conviction and honesty.”

Dudley said Lee understands the complex issues of housing, the cannabis industry, and the diverse needs of renters, homeowners and businesses. She said he will make decisions that are in the best interest of the county.

Dudley said Lee’s opponent, Williams, can be “charismatic,” but “I do not find him to be a man of his word or someone who puts the interests of his constituents above his own.”

One of the issues with which Lee said he believes constituents have been ignored is the odor of cannabis grown and processed in the Carpinteria Valley.

“The No. 1 issue that people have is the smell,” Lee said. “It has not gotten better. They need to put in those carbon scrubbers to effectively get rid of the smell.”

He said the odor is experienced by people in their homes and at the high school.

“There was no public input on this,” Lee said. “It just seems like it was done behind closed doors.”

Williams took about $62,500 in contributions from cannabis growers while the county was drafting the ordinance in 2019, before his successful campaign against Laura Capps.

Williams continues to take contributions from the cannabis industry, although he downplays the amount, saying it is only “6%” of total contributions.

That attitude is unacceptable, Lee said.

“That’s not how government should work,” Lee said. “It should be transparent to the public.”

He decided to run after talking to his wife, and he knows that he is fighting uphill. It’s not natural, he said, for him to ask people for money.

Culturally, he was taught not to do that. He wants people to vote for him because they support his character, not because they hope for a payback.

“Asking people for money has always been foreign to me,” Lee said. “As a business person, when you ask someone for something, they want something in return. In politics, I am thinking if people give you money, they are going to want a favor down the road. That’s not how I operate.”

He said he wants to treat everyone fairly regardless of contributions. Williams, he said, is raising money now for a future run for U.S Congress or state Senate.

“I am raising money, but he has been doing it for so long he is indebted to a lot of people who will donate to him,” Lee said.

Lee also said he supports workforce housing, but not more market-rate housing. He wants to work on building workforce housing on infill sites, on top of commercial buildings, and on government land before rezoning agriculture land for housing.

“The simple way is to just build to the sky, but that’s not how you solve this issue,” Lee said.

Lee, who has served for eight years on the Carpinteria City Council, said he knows that he’s the underdog, but he’s going into the March 5 primary with an open mind. He doesn’t know what will happen.

What he does know, he said, is that a change is needed.

“People are angry,” Lee said. “You can complain about it, or you can do something about it. I want to be that person who fixes issues that people care about.”

— Noozhawk will publish a political profile on First District incumbent Supervisor Das Williams later this week.