Das Williams reflects on his tenure in the California State Assembly, and touches on his years as a member of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, in the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina.
Williams served on the Santa Barbara City Council for seven years before he was elected in the 37th District in the State Assembly.
He spent six years in the Assembly and then eight years on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.
At age 50, Williams seemed to have many years left in politics, but he was upset in last March’s election by Carpinteria City Councilman Roy Lee.
Among the challenges he faced as supervisor was the controversial cannabis ordinance.
Williams accepted financial contributions from the industry at a time when the county was drafting the ordinance. At the same time, some people in the Carpinteria Valley complained about the odors coming from the cannabis farms.
Watch the one-hour podcast by clicking on the YouTube video below.
“Do you regret the nexus between the amount of money you took and the ordinance and people blending those two together, and one of the things that haunted you?” Molina asks.
Williams responds: “Yeah, I think it definitely haunted me. I think, unfortunately as a double-standard because most of the elected officials did that back then and no one else has been held accountable for it.”
Williams said the cannabis industry reduced pesticide and employed workers at a livable wage.
“You know who is already paying better than a livable wage, better than $26 an hour? Marijuana,” Williams said. “At the time, I didn’t think it was questionable. It was also years before a decision had to be made. But I obviously understand how some people saw it.”
Williams said that it is difficult for an elected official to get things right all the time. He said sometimes there are two wrong answers, and you have to figure out which one is “less wrong.”
“There are things that haunt you sometimes in this business, and I wish it would have gone differently,” Williams said.
Most of Part 2 of the podcast focuses on Williams’ legislation in the Assembly, as he navigated the halls of Sacramento.
He talks about legislation related to the environment, climate change, capping oil wells, energy, sustainability, recycling, red flag gun laws, and more.
“I got a reputation for really being willing to work my bills,” Williams said. “That means I was able to talk to absolutely every single legislator, so that’s 119 conversations minimum, even if you just talk to each of them once, which obviously with committee heads you want to talk to more than once.
“It was also because I spent time to connect with my colleagues.”
Joshua Molina is journalist who currently writes for Noozhawk and teaches journalism at Santa Barbara City College. He formerly covered politics and land use for the San Jose Mercury News. Santa Barbara Talks is an independently owned podcast where Molina looks to bring together voices from all perspectives to discuss and provide solutions to the challenges related to housing, education, transportation and other community issues. Subscribe to his podcast here and consider a contribution here.