Roy Lee’s uphill campaign to unseat incumbent 1st District Supervisor Das Williams just picked up some major wind at his back with endorsements coming from public safety heavyweights: former district attorney Joyce Dudley, former Santa Barbara City fire chief Pat McElroy, and Barney Melekian, former interim Santa Barbara City police chief, former undersheriff, and former county administrator in charge of cannabis and law enforcement, among other things.
In a press release issued Tuesday, all three — well respected within old-school Democratic Party circles — took pains to praise Lee, a Carpinteria City Councilmember and restaurant owner, while saying nothing at all about Williams, with whom all three worked at various times in their collective careers. The press release was notable not for what was said so much as who was saying it.
McElroy said Lee — a registered Democrat who has attracted support from some old-school Republican Party stalwarts like Mike Stoker — would “bring a fresh new voice” and listen. “It is time for a change,” McElroy stated. McElroy and Williams have known and worked with each other for decades, but McElroy — a major supporter of the protective steel nets installed on three Montecito creeks in the wake of the deadly debris flow — and Williams experienced a significant falling out that led to the removal of those nets. There was no shortage of bruised feelings to go around, and they remain exceedingly tender.
Lee, who enjoys genuine personal popularity in Carpinteria, has been bruising if vague in his attacks on Williams, calling him “two-faced” and a professional politician. Speaking of Lee, Joyce Dudley said, “His approach to tackling public safety issues with compassion and fairness is exactly what Santa Barbara needs.”
Williams has played an aggressive role on the board in pushing for criminal justice reform, reduced spending on the jail, and fewer mentally ill defendants incarcerated. Over this, he and Dudley — a liberal Democrat among prosecuting attorneys — did not see eye to eye. When the supervisors approved a package of pay raises for department heads that was more generous to the Public Defender than to the District Attorney, Dudley let her displeasure be felt.
Of Lee, Melekian stated, “His vision for a safer community aligns with the needs of our law enforcement officers and the people they serve.” Among law enforcement leaders, Melekian has enjoyed respect as a thoughtful broker when it came to law enforcement issues and criminal justice reform. For a brief stint, he was designated the county’s point person when it came to the burgeoning cannabis industry and its downstream impacts on surrounding communities. Williams was a leader in the county’s legislative efforts to legalize the industry and has been widely criticized — especially in his hometown of Carpinteria, where the attendant odors have been especially pungent — for his close ties with cannabis cultivators.
Williams released a statement expressing pride in what he called “unprecedented investments in storm drainage and debris basins” on Randall Road in Montecito. “I’m proud of the big strides we have taken in the last few years to improve emergency response times, prepared us for wildfires and storms, and invested in community solutions that makes us safer.”
County Firefighters union also endorsed Williams, citing his work “modernizing 9-1-1 response and building the state-of-the-art Regional Fire Dispatch Center,” said Bryan Fernandez, fire captain paramedic.
From left, Joyce Dudley, Pat McElroy, and Barney Melekian
