Hello Neighbors,
My name is Lee Mao, and I am both proud and excited to officially announce my candidacy for Diamond Bar City Council, District 4.
My family immigrated to the United States from Taiwan when I was just 10 years old, and we planted our roots in Sacramento, California. I went on to graduate, in 1989, from California State University, Sacramento with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. It was
there that I met my wonderful wife, Amy.
It was happenstance, a job relocation to Southern California, that brought us home to Diamond Bar. My wife and I fell in love with this city and we purchased our first house here in 1993. It was here that we welcomed our daughter, Rachel, into the world, and consider it a true privilege and blessing that we were able to raise and nurture her in this community.
Although I have a science degree, I have always had an interest in entrepreneurship and business development. Professionally, I started out my career in 1989 working my way up from area sales manager at The Weinstock Department Store in Sacramento to a promotion to the main Purchasing Office for The Broadway family of stores headquartered in Los Angeles, later acquired by Macy’s; it was actually this promotion that brought my wife and I to Diamond Bar. In 1996, I founded my first business and, by 2000, I started developing and selling dot-coms across the whole of the United States. Currently, I am the Founder of a successful small business that employs seven people and supplies home furnishings and bedding to retailers of all sizes.
I have experience serving multiple terms, including as President, on my local homeowner’s association, where we partnered with the Diamond Bar Woman’s Club to establish our signature charitable cause, “Making Spirits Bright.” “Making Spirits Bright” is our annual toy drive for military families. What started as a small initiative meant for a local military base, continues to grow year over year and now serves many more children at two Southern California bases. In addition, from 2016 to 2019, I had the privilege of helping prepare Diamond Bar for Its next chapter of responsible growth and economic development by serving on the General Plan Advisory Committee.
I have experience serving multiple terms, including as President, on my local homeowner’s association. In that capacity, I have extensive experience dealing with developer matters, infrastructure matters, city government and administrative matters, environmental issues and legal matters. The Association manages, maintains and contracts out services for much of its own infrastructure, including streets and water runoff management. During my tenure, I also partnered with the Diamond Bar Woman’s Club to establish our signature charitable cause, “Making Spirits Bright.” “Making Spirits Bright” is our annual toy drive for military families. What started as a small initiative meant for a local military base, continues to grow year over year and now serves many more children at two Southern California bases. In addition, from 2016 to 2019, I had the privilege of helping prepare Diamond Bar for Its next chapter of responsible growth and economic development by serving on the General Plan Advisory Committee.
We are fortunate that, in our case, there really is 'no place like home.' Preserving our unique character and high quality of life, all while facilitating and encouraging economic growth will, admittedly, have its challenges; that is why I will be calling on all of you, my neighbors and the entirety of Diamond Bar’s stakeholders, not just those of us in District 4, to collaborate for a stronger community. As your councilman, preserving Diamond Bar’s single-family neighborhoods and protecting our natural environment will be my highest priorities, and reconciling those goals with the needs of a community that desires quality public services, diverse retail options and modern public facilities will be my most important role.
The core tenets of my grassroots campaign are simple - collaboration, building community and principled representation. In preparation for this campaign, I went out into the community and listened to the issues that are most important to my neighbors; as a long-time resident, myself, we agree on what our community needs strengthened:
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ROBUST PUBLIC SAFETY that proactively responds to the quality of life crimes that most affect our community.
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COMMUNITY BUILDING that increases the frequency of holiday celebrations and local festivals offered and sanctioned by the City.
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TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS that help mitigate congestion and pass-through traffic that makes running errands and the kids to school difficult.
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DIVERSIFIED COMMERCE that allows our residents to dine, shop and play all right here in Diamond Bar.
For those of you that know me, you know that my personal passion is helping friends and neighbors; I would like to extend this sense of service to our whole community. I believe that my experience and perspective as a businessman and entrepreneur, coupled with my extensive involvement with local and regional charitable organizations and civic committees, will be valuable assets to our City Council. I would like to partner with you all, my neighbors, and our local business community to ensure that Diamond Bar realizes Its fullest potential. I’m counting on your support to help elect me, Lee Mao, to the Diamond Bar City Council starting October 10, 2022.