{"id":11572,"date":"2024-02-20T16:10:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T16:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=11572"},"modified":"2024-02-20T16:13:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T16:13:44","slug":"meet-the-candidate-mike-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editors’ Note: Eleven candidates \u2014 all Democrats \u2014 are vying for five seats on the Durham County Board of Commissioners in the March 5 election. No Republicans or Libertarians have entered the contest, so the March 5 results will determine who sits on the commission. The 9th Street Journal is speaking with each candidate in the race. In coming days, we’ll bring you profiles of all 11 candidates.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As a school board member and businessman, Mike Lee developed a knack for budgeting. Now he wants to bring that combination of experience to the Durham County Board of Commissioners, where he\u2019s running for one of five seats.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cMy relationships with DPS are really important and my experience working with the DPS budget and its nuances, I think that’s gonna be really important moving forward,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bull City has been <\/span>mired in conflict<\/span><\/a> since early January when Durham Public Schools informed 1,300 classified staff members they were overpaid due to an accounting error. Teachers and staff participated in protests and walkouts after learning the pay raises would be revoked, causing school closures across the city and prompting the superintendent to resign. Lee watched the developments with sadness, noting the superintendent\u2019s many academic achievements.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really disappointing, and I hate to see him resign,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as for the money?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t believe DPS has the funds to maintain the raises,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI just don’t think the money is there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think \u2014 and as a county commissioner something I would advocate for \u2014 Durham Public Schools classified staff should be on the same [salary] schedule as county staff that have the same role,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lee served eight years on the DPS board, four of them as chair and two as vice chair. A customer success executive at Avalara, a tax software company, with a doctorate in business administration, he\u2019s spent 27 years working in software development and customer relations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lee brought his business expertise to the school board, where he advocated for budget transparency and \u201cevaluative budgeting,\u201d encouraging DPS to measure the outcomes of its discretionary spending programs. He believes that only those programs with tangible, positive results should continue to receive funding \u2014\u00a0and he hopes to bring the same logic to the Board of County Commissioners.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow I have even more experience in business and investing and technology and finance and things like that,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that that type of experience would be very beneficial on the Board of County Commissioners, just like it was on the school board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While chairman of the DPS board, Lee helped stave off a <\/span>state takeover<\/span><\/a> of two underperforming Durham schools, <\/span>Lakewood and Glenn elementary schools<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMike really galvanized our community and worked with the Durham Association of Educators and worked with the parents and families and teachers of the two schools,\u201d said Natalie Beyer, a DPS board member who worked with Lee during his school board tenure. \u201cLakewood and Glenn elementary over time have proved to be doing better than any of the schools like in Robeson County that went under state takeover.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from educational policy, Lee is passionate about affordable housing and transit reform. As commissioner, he hopes to use existing transportation infrastructure to cut costs while reducing traffic and congestion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole light rail kind of fell through, but I think there’s still a need for those kinds of ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are other programs that can use our existing infrastructure like bus rapid transit. We can expand out the road a little bit for the bus lanes to give buses priority.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside of work and politics, Lee is a father with three children in Durham Public Schools. He served on the YMCA board for seven years and coaches soccer at Lucas Middle School, where his youngest son plays on the team. He\u2019s also served on the Hillandale Sports Association bboard as treasurer for 11 years, where he coaches basketball, baseball and soccer. Beyond sports, he was the drum major in his university\u2019s marching band and has even dabbled in filmmaking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s like a renaissance man,\u201d Beyer said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Armed with endorsements from the Durham Association of Educators, the Durham People\u2019s Alliance and INDY Week, Lee doesn\u2019t underestimate the challenges of being a commissioner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGoverning is hard; it\u2019s a full contact sport, and you can see that at the school board meetings,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is tough. And there are a lot of things I think people that have never governed before may not expect, especially at this level, at the county commissioner level.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we’re gonna need someone to hit the ground running on day one, to be able to contribute, and I think I’m that person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Early voting continues through March 2 ahead of the election on March 5.<\/p>\n

Above: Photo of Mike Lee by Abigail Bromberger \u2014 The 9th Street Journal\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editors’ Note: Eleven candidates \u2014 all Democrats \u2014 are vying for five seats on the Durham County Board of Commissioners in the March 5 election.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":11576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[392,12],"tags":[136],"class_list":["post-11572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections-2024","category-local-government","tag-elections","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the candidate: Mike Lee - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee - 9th Street Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Editors’ Note: Eleven candidates \u2014 all Democrats \u2014 are vying for five seats on the Durham County Board of Commissioners in the March 5 election.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"9th Street Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-20T16:10:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-20T16:13:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mia Penner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mia Penner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mia Penner\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/person\/8e87c6c87252ee31c36dc1903ee36b42\"},\"headline\":\"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-20T16:10:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-20T16:13:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/\"},\"wordCount\":820,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Elections\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Elections 2024\",\"Local government\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/\",\"name\":\"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee - 9th Street Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-20T16:10:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-20T16:13:44+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/\",\"name\":\"9th Street Journal\",\"description\":\"We cover Durham (and North Carolina politics)\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"9th Street Journal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/09\/9th-Street-Journal-Logo-cropped.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/09\/9th-Street-Journal-Logo-cropped.jpeg\",\"width\":869,\"height\":104,\"caption\":\"9th Street Journal\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/person\/8e87c6c87252ee31c36dc1903ee36b42\",\"name\":\"Mia Penner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ab2cc692a913501320d8d99aaea10b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ab2cc692a913501320d8d99aaea10b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mia Penner\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/author\/mia-penner\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee - 9th Street Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee - 9th Street Journal","og_description":"Editors’ Note: Eleven candidates \u2014 all Democrats \u2014 are vying for five seats on the Durham County Board of Commissioners in the March 5 election.…","og_url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/","og_site_name":"9th Street Journal","article_published_time":"2024-02-20T16:10:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-20T16:13:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mia Penner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mia Penner","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/"},"author":{"name":"Mia Penner","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/person\/8e87c6c87252ee31c36dc1903ee36b42"},"headline":"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee","datePublished":"2024-02-20T16:10:57+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-20T16:13:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/"},"wordCount":820,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg","keywords":["Elections"],"articleSection":["Elections 2024","Local government"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/","url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/","name":"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee - 9th Street Journal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-20T16:10:57+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-20T16:13:44+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Mike-Lee-2-7-2024-7-scaled-e1708445258959.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/20\/meet-the-candidate-mike-lee\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Meet the candidate: Mike Lee"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/","name":"9th Street Journal","description":"We cover Durham (and North Carolina politics)","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#organization","name":"9th Street Journal","url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/09\/9th-Street-Journal-Logo-cropped.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/09\/9th-Street-Journal-Logo-cropped.jpeg","width":869,"height":104,"caption":"9th Street Journal"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/person\/8e87c6c87252ee31c36dc1903ee36b42","name":"Mia Penner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ab2cc692a913501320d8d99aaea10b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ab2cc692a913501320d8d99aaea10b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mia Penner"},"url":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/author\/mia-penner\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}