Dear Editor,
It has been an honor to serve the citizens of Mohave County as the District 4 Supervisor. Throughout my time in office, I have worked every day to do what is right for our county. Among the ways I have endeavored to serve our area is by engaging with our state law-makers and convening county officials from across the state to share information about critical issues we face. As always, my goal is to fight for the interests of Mohave County and to make sure we are heard!
State legislation and policies can have a real impact on Mohave County’s government operations and resources. We have three outstanding state legislators—Regina Cobb, Leo Biasiucci and Sonny Borrelli—representing our area. Knowing they see hundreds of bills each year and that they welcome input from local officials, I stepped up to represent Mohave County on the Legislative Policy Committee of the County Supervisors Association (CSA) for 2 legislative sessions, 2018 through 2019. This enabled me to stay informed to the many legislative bills that could impact our county and to provide my insight and experience to our legislative team for the purpose of informing their decisions at the state level and improving the outcome for our county.
I also advocated for over $1.2 million in annual relief to our county. To help our legislators argue on our behalf, I traveled to the Capitol in Phoenix to tell our story before committees and worked with other counties to do the same. By partnering this way with our legislators to fight for our community, we finally saw the state eliminate mandates for Mohave County taxpayers to pay for state responsibilities in juvenile justice, health care and DPS.
For 2019, I was selected to serve as chairman of CSA’s medium county caucus. The caucus includes supervisors and managers from Mohave, Cochise, Coconino, Yavapai and Yuma counties. As chairman, I brought in experts to discuss rural water issues, efforts to reduce mental illness in jails, and strategies to control the costs of the legacy debt owed to public safety pensions. I also brought in the State Land Commissioner and the head of the Department of Public Safety to talk about issues in our communities.
Because of my track record of fighting for rural counties, I was unanimously elected to the CSA’s Executive Committee in November 2019. This means that I currently serve as a member of the association’s leadership, along with 5 other county supervisors statewide, and I am on track to serve as CSA’s president in 2022—the first time a Mohave County supervisor has led the organization since 1980!
I am proud of my service to Mohave County and I will continue to use all my energy to protect our communities, to tell our story and to advocate for our interests. I would be honored to have the opportunity to continue to serve Mohave County for another term.
Mohave County Supervisor Jean Bishop
You are hiding behind Governor Ducey’s mandates and using County resources to enforce them. You know that in this election year you would never be re-elected if you and the board issued your own mandates. You are relying on biased data that has confirmed your fear and caused you to lose rationale. I hear from the elderly community, those high at risk, who cannot believe healthy people are being forced to wear masks. If a mask makes you feel safe, by all means, wear one. Enough of unfettered control from you and those who are elected. I get to choose my doctor but not my public health official. That’s your job. If you can’t find one that believes in personal freedom, than you should be replaced.