One-term NPA councillor B.C. Lee will not seek a second term on city council in November’s municipal election.

On May 8, Lee told the Straight by phone that he had not filed nomination papers with the Non-Partisan Association by the May 3 deadline, and therefore he will not be considered alongside the NPA incumbents and newbies this June.

“I did not submit my papers; I am not running,” Lee confirmed. “My action of not submitting my papers is in itself an announcement. I don’t think anyone would care less about that. Anyone who asks me now I will clearly respond with, ‘I am not running.’”

Lee cited “personal” reasons for his decision.

“It is a three-year solid commitment, and it’s not a job that you can resign or whatever,” he said. “I take that commitment seriously, so when I foresee something that would happen that would not harmonize with what will happen the next couple of years, I cannot make that commitment.”

Born in Macau, Lee speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and English. He has been quiet in all four languages in council, apart from a widely published, fawning love letter to Mayor Sam Sullivan in 2006.

However, at the NPA’s 2005 candidate-nomination meeting at the Vancouver Italian Cultural Centre, Lee was effervescent and pulled out all the fist-pumping stops when he yelled, “I was born in Macau, made in Taiwan, refined in New York, and ended up in Vancouver.”

In closing, Lee noted, “I enjoyed working these past few years.”