This is an article I wrote, if you are a news outlet, feel free to use this.
Hello, I’m Mark Jones, candidate for Josephine County Commissioner position 2. This is where I’m supposed to write about myself, which is something that I’ve always had a hard time doing. You see, I am not a self-promoter, I always think that it’s better to have somebody else tell you how good I am than for me to tell you how good I am. Anybody can tell you that they’re awesome, that they’re going to do the best they can for you, and that you are going to be so much better with them in your life. But in reality, it’s all just a bunch of words. That’s why I would much rather have somebody write this, somebody who knows me, like somebody who has had dealings with me in the past. These are the people who can speak to who I truly am. But, since I have been tasked to write this myself, I will do my best to work through it.
I’ll start of with a little bit about my past. My family moved here in 1971, when I was only a year old. I’m the youngest of 5, so fortunately, my oldest sister has been able to fill me in on those first few years. I don’t remember much of anything before we lived in the house on N. Applegate Road out in Murphy. That’s about as far back as my memory allows me to go. As I sit here and think about those memories, they were all really great. I am very fortunate to have the childhood that I did.
I attended a kindergarten that was at the church next door to Lincoln Savage Middle school. I attended Murphy Elementary School, which is now the Three Rivers School District office. I did however, attend Allendale Elementary for second grade, as we had moved next to the Grants Pass Golf Club. Third grade put me back at Murphy Elementary as we had moved to a home just a few doors up from Fields Home Center. That is where my parents remained until they passed away in 2014.
I graduated from Hidden Valley High School in 1988 and decided I did not want to jump right into college, even though I had an opportunity to go to the Art Institute of Seattle. I decided instead to start working in the grocery business where I ended up as 4th manager at Ray’s in Rogue River when I was nineteen. In 1991, my best friend from high school got me interested in the fire service and I started what would become my career. This career took me to Arizona in 1999, where I worked in the city of Scottsdale for Rural Metro Fire Department. The city created their own Fire Department in 2005 and terminated the contract for fire protection from Rural Metro. In 2018, I retired from the City of Scottsdale Fire Department and decided it was time to return home to Josephine County.
I started a job for the Josephine County Assessor’s office in September of 2018 and learned a lot about how our taxes are assessed. I resigned at the end of six months, as it I did not feel like I was helping people the way I’ve helped people more than half my life as a fireman. I found out that it was very hard for me to adapt to not being a fireman anymore, as helping people is in my blood. I was then offered a job at Rural Metro Josephine County in the fire prevention department. There I found myself doing home safety inspections, wildfire defensible space assessments, and installing smoke alarms for those who didn’t have them in their homes. I then resigned from that job in March of 2021 as I was asked to run for a position on a fireboard for a proposed fire district.
I’ll speak briefly about the fire district proposal. There is approximately 350 square miles of Josephine County with residential lots that is unprotected by a rural fire district. Currently, that area is protected by Rural Metro through the use of a subscription-based service. Since it is a private company, they are unable to receive State and Federal grants to assist home owners with fire protection in that area. That is one of the reasons a fire district was placed on the ballot for May of 2021. The group I was with had chosen 5 quality candidates to run for these board positions. We were all challenged by other candidates who utilized running for the fire board positions so that they could speak against forming a fire district. The five of us had been elected, but the fire district did not pass by a mere 6%. Now today, 53 years after the Commissioners in 1971 had looked into forming a fire district, we are still without a fire district for this unprotected area.
My experience running for that fire board position opened my eyes to what was going on in the county that I had left behind for my career. I looked around for somebody to step in and try to fix the issues that I was seeing, but nobody wanted to do it. That left me in a position to decide if I wanted to be that person or not. In 2022 I decided I was going to step up and get myself known by running for County Commissioner. Even as a no-name person to all but family, friends, and those I grew up with, I came in 4th place out of 8 candidates in that May’s Primary election. Since that campaign, I have continued to be engaged in the county.
For more than two years now I have dedicated my time to learning the position and the issues our county faces. I have attended most of the Tuesday Commissioner legal meetings, the Wednesday Business sessions (where I generally speak during public comment), and the Thursday commissioner workshops. My attendance at the Association of Oregon Counties district 4 meeting last year taught me even more about being a commissioner. Studying hard for this position, like I have been doing, will make it easy for me to hit the ground running when I am elected.
Along with my time spent learning the position of County Commissioner, I am involved in a couple advisory boards and other organizations. I am currently the Vice Chairman of both the Rural Planning Commission and the Josephine Housing and Community Development Council. I’m a member of the Merlin Community Park Board of Directors and a member of a citizens group that is focused on the delivery of Fire Services throughout all of Josephine County. Wednesdays you will find me at Greeters, a gathering of Grants Pass and Josephine County Chamber of Commerce members, and Rotary as I am the Foundation Director for our group. My weeks are busier now volunteering and studying for Commissioner, than they ever were when I was working.
Well, here we are approaching the now phase of this article. Sorry for the lengthy explanation of my past, but I had to set the stage. On the 21st of May you will all be tasked with voting for a person to replace the open County Commissioner seats. One seat for position #2 and one for position #3 will be on your ballots. As stated above, I am running for position #2, which is currently held by Dan DeYoung. I have been meeting and talking with him for this whole time learning as much as I can about being your next Commissioner. I have established a good rapport with all the County Department Heads and Directors as well as a few Cave Junction and Grants Pass city councilors. These types of relationships are necessary for seamless transition between incoming and outgoing Commissioners.
I am ready to lead and govern this county the same way I served in the fire service, with integrity and leadership that prioritizes transparency, accountability, and principled decision-making. My commitment to leading with honesty, ethics, and a genuine desire to serve is what Josephine County needs. My governing philosophy aims to foster an environment where public officials are held to the highest ethical standards. I reject deceptive practices, corruption, and self-serving agendas, while focusing on ensuring that the interests of the community are paramount. You deserve better from your leadership, elect me and I will return that style of governing to Josephine County. Our county needs more than just responsible governing, we need to build our local economy, increase housing, reduce homelessness, and create a safe and secure environment for all to prosper in. These things can be accomplished if we start working together. The division between our two major parties, the far right and far left, has hindered our ability to move forward in a positive direction. If we remove the political labels, I believe we would find that we all want a safe and secure, prosperous, welcoming county. Learn about my positions on local issues at ElectMarkJones.com.