It Starts with the Dishes

Jimmy Stewart played a version of this character in the well-known classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The difference is, our newly elected soon to be 1st District County Supervisor is for real. Or is he? Time will certainly tell. But for now, Roy Lee is on his way to the county to do what he calls “serving this community with humility.” We may all have forgotten what that looks like by now, but it may well look like a 40 something Taiwanese immigrant who, as young child, came to Santa Barbara with his family in 1986. His parents worked hard running small businesses, experiences Lee credits with instilling within him a strong work ethic. He attended local schools before graduating from UC Santa Barbara in 2006. He’s served for eight years on the Carpinteria City Council while working at his family’s restaurant in Carp, called Uncle Chen’s. And Lee credits this connection with his local community for keeping him “grounded and focused on what’s important.” 

Come December, Lee will no longer be waiting tables and mopping floors at Uncle Chen’s. He will instead be at the County, working to mop up the messes he believes were, at least in part, created by his predecessor. Time will tell whether this charming and remarkably un-jaded man will be able to hold on to the idealism, humility, and strong connection he built to his local community while waiting on their tables; whether he can stay “grounded and focused on what’s important.” Certainly, the voters who elected him as a breath of fresh air are counting on it. But at the very least, it’s an inspiring Oscar-worthy story I like to call: Mr. Lee Goes to Santa Barbara County.

This is a conversation I had with Roy Lee last week (edited for length):

Gwyn Lurie. How are you feeling now that the election is over?

Roy Lee. I feel very grateful, and very happy to be given this opportunity to serve.

Was there any part of you that went, “Oh, no, now I have to actually do this?”

No. I’m very excited to go out there and just listen and learn and prepare for the role that I’m about to take.

What does preparation look like for you?

Learning as much as I can. I’ve been talking to Houghton Hyatt from the Montecito Association, learning about the important issues in Montecito, like the ring nets, the Hot Springs Trail, and the expansion of the Rosewood Miramar and the conflicts with the neighborhood. Those are the top three issues that I have learned by also talking to the neighborhoods.

I spoke with Marshall Miller on the planning commission, and Cori Hayman (Director, Montecito Water District). Marshall has a great idea called the Geological Hazard Abatement District, a government agency that provides communities with the ability to become more resilient on sloping communities such as Montecito. And Cori Hayman has an idea for how to pay for that. So I’m going to meet with her to hear her ideas and just put all the pieces together to make Montecito more resilient in the future.

I assume Cori’s not just going to write a check? What was her idea?

No, I wish. She said there’s a government agency in Santa Maria that can provide the funding necessary. I want to learn as much as I can. There are so many amazing people in Montecito that know so much, and I want to listen and learn and bring their skills and experience to the supervisor role.

Why do you think you won? That was a significant victory considering you were up against a seasoned, long time Santa Barbara politician.

It was a lot of compounding factors. It was the timing. It was the mistakes that Das [Williams] kept making time and time again, and it was just hard work on my part, getting the word out, the endorsements, knocking on the doors. Everything just came right for me and wrong for him. 

And there are other things. For example, my sister-in-law, my brother’s wife, is the general manager at Gelson’s. For the past six months, she’s been campaigning for me at Gelson’s in the San Roque area. She told hundreds of the people throughout all those months to vote for me, and they did. So, when I went to Gelson’s, people knew me and they were rooting for me. And I have a lot of local friends in Santa Barbara who have relatives, local business owners, and they just want to see someone, a regular person, a hardworking person, win. The underdog, right? It’s kind of a Rocky story. People like to see that.

Oftentimes the people who vote are not heard. My family’s restaurant in Carpinteria was actually a great campaign point because people would come for the food, and I’d get the opportunity to talk to them. For six, seven months, I was meeting a hundred people per day. And the word got out.

The most amazing thing happened to me the other day. An eight-year-old young man came into our restaurant, and he said, “I believe in you. I supported you, and I’m so happy you won.” And to me that meant so much to see someone so young believe in me. And that will always remind me to do better and do what’s best for the community. And so that was a big epiphany for me at that moment, just like, wow, I cannot let this kid or my community down. It gives me this energy to just go out there and do my best.

I always have a simple policy; I never will impose on you something
I would never impose on myself.

You’ve begun talking about the importance of affordable housing. What are your thoughts on this? You were elected by a broad political spectrum, and people tend to have strong ideas on this. How are you planning to thread this needle?

My goal is to focus on affordable workforce housing for our community. I know a lot of developers want to come in and just build, build, build this 80/20% ratio, right? 80% market and 20% affordable. We have to push back. We have to say, “no, this does not work.” It is not solving any issues. All it will do is turn our community into this Orange County type of feel, which I’m against. I want to preserve what we have here, because we live in such an amazing, beautiful place. I want to make sure that it stays that way. Montecito is one of the most exclusive areas in the whole world as well as Santa Barbara, and Summerland and Cuyama – and it’s a fine balance. We don’t want to go too far right or too far left. And we have to make sure that we work with developers and the housing authority to move forward with this housing RYNA mandate. It’s so frustrating because the state gives us 120 days to come up with a housing element draft. Usually, rezoning and planning takes years and a lot of money, to make it effective. So we’re kind of rushing through this, and it’s going to turn out bad.

So, what’s the solution?

We have to work with our local government agencies. For example, in Carpinteria, any rezoning that we have to do, they have to be on board with. One example is the Red Tail Hawk Project. The county and the developer is pushing for this five story, 183 unit housing. The city, including myself and the City Council, are against it because it will negatively impact our city, our communities, and in the long term it’s going to set precedents that will ruin the charm and character of Carpinteria. So that’s one example.

As a supervisor, I want to work with the housing authority, the city of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, to make sure whatever we propose, they will support too.

Are you saying you want to create enough housing but not impact the character of the communities? 

Yes. And it’s possible because in Carpinteria, we propose that they build within our guidelines, 30 feet max, the density, not so high, and then we find a compromise. But the county and the developers just want to build as high and as densely as they want. So there’s compromise to be made, and we have to find that medium. We have to all  work together, because we have eight years to make this happen. We do not want to rush it and just make a mess of everything. That’s what I’m concerned about.

How about the Miramar project? There are many people, particularly longtime residents, who don’t necessarily want more fancy stores and high-rise condos. Part of that project is more affordable apartments for employees. What is your feeling about the overall plan being proposed?

I’m holding a special meeting at All Saints on April 6th. I invited the whole neighborhood to come out and I’m going to listen and learn. I always have a simple policy; I never will impose on you something I would never impose on myself. For me, no, I wouldn’t want more traffic, more density across the street from my home. Imagine kids going out to play. What if there’s more traffic? You don’t put people in danger. But I think there’s a compromise. I have some ideas. For example, let this project go through, but get the revenue from those stores and earmark it for the neighborhood for things like underground power lines, road maintenance, etc. If the community is open to that, then I think it could work. Because who doesn’t want underground power lines? It’d be great for property values. It’d be great for providing consistent power, but how do we pay for that? Could the Miramar expansion be part of the solution? And how about the Biltmore? They want to do more. Well, let’s create 10% of the revenue that they get to the underground power lines in Montecito community.

I take it you have not yet had that conversation with Ty Warner?

No, I haven’t met him yet. I assume eventually I will. But I just think if he loves Montecito, then he will want what’s best for it, too.

Let’s talk about the cannabis situation because that was obviously a big impetus behind your community’s support for you. What is your plan to unscramble the mess that’s been created, not just from a permitting and policy perspective, but also from a disgruntled resident perspective?

It has to be done in steps. Getting rid of the smell is the first step. I will support the ordinance of implementing carbon scrubbers in the whole county, not just Carpinteria. Then you look at the taxation, and it is very confusing. I was watching the supervisors talking about it. If they don’t understand it, how can a voter understand what they’re proposing? So taxation, smell, and look at the proximity to where it is being grown. It should not be grown next to homes and schools. I think we must look at other areas with better placement for this industry.

Are you saying the system of taxation should be changed to be more like what’s being done in Humboldt County or other counties – where growers are taxed per square area versus the revenue collected from sales?

Yes. It allows for more consistent enforcement, and you can predict the revenue that’s coming from each of the farms. We have to take this negative and turn it into a positive. We have so much acreage devoted to this industry, and yet we get so little. Something’s wrong and I’ll find out and make this work for us.

A big part of a supervisor’s job involves budgets. And budgets are moral documents. They’re a reflection of your values as a leader and the board’s values. But you can’t make everyone happy. How are you going to feel about that?

It’s a good thing to have experience on the city council. When people vote for you, they put their trust in you. It’s a basic rule of government to focus on roads, infrastructure and provide a better-quality life for everyone and not just specific groups. So, I will focus on road improvements and simple things that can have so much impact on daily lives of everybody. And there will be some controversial issues coming up. But I always remind myself that as long as you do what’s best for the community, you can never go wrong. And at the end of the day, I have to live with my decisions and live and sleep on those issues. Over the past six years on the city council, I believe my decisions were made with sound reason and common sense. And that’s what I want to bring. I don’t want to have somebody tell me how to vote because they see it this way. I always vote, like you said, with my heart in place with the community.

Is there anything else that you want this community to know about you or your intentions?

I just want to say, I am going to spend the next eight months, before I take office, reaching out to the whole first district and having meetings with many people and learning; and just really listening about their needs and wants, and then prioritizing that in my first hundred days as supervisor. And setting goals for myself to accomplish things that you may not necessarily see but you will experience in your daily life. Small things such as street repairs, improvements to roundabouts; things that will help people just appreciate what we are able to do as a government. And big issues down the road with what’s happening in Montecito, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara.

What about building relationships on the board? How’s that going?

It’s amazing. I’ve spoken with not just the current supervisors, but former ones such as Joe Marshall, Janet Wolf, and Peter Adams. Peter is coming here next week to have lunch with me and just talk. That’s great. I want to build strong relationships and just learn from former supervisors about how I can do better. How can I be a better supervisor for the first district and the whole community?

How does your family feel?

They’re proud. My wife, my kids, my mom and dad. To come to this country with so little and having so many people tell us that we’ll never succeed in life. But we worked so hard to achieve not just the business and our personal lives, but to be here before you today and saying, “I’m the next supervisor.” It is the American dream. It shows you the value of work hard, be honest, have integrity. You can make it. You can be successful. You can do it the right way. And we have. We have always given back to the community. We have always served, given our time and energy, and we’re proud. It wasn’t easy. I say this campaign started off when I was 14 years old washing my first dish here at the restaurant. That’s when I started my path to where I am today. I have a strong work ethic. I have a strong family value, and just listening and learning and just building trust. It took me a while to get where I am, but I’m incredibly grateful for everything.

So, the moral of the story is, our kids should do the dishes?

Everybody should start with the dishes because it teaches you about humility, being humble, and no matter who you are, I’m here to serve you. That’s why I’m still here every day at the restaurant. I’m mopping the floors, I’m vacuuming. You have to do everything. You can’t just always be the boss collecting money and writing the checks. You have to know the whole, from the bottom to the top. You appreciate your life more and I remind myself who I am, and that I’m here to serve.