The end of the year marks the beginning of Mark Medina’s new role as District 1 supervisor.
Medina will be sworn in at the first county board meeting in January while taking over for Supervisor Margie Barrios, who did not seek reelection after serving two terms. Medina won the seat during his primary race against opponent Mark Starritt.
District 1 is comprised of northeast Hollister and north county areas.
Medina said he was inspired to run because it was time for a change.
“I want to try to bring some of my business experience to the political arena,” Medina said.
The businessman who grew up in the county said he helped orchestrate the meeting between the City of Hollister and Teknova CEO Ted Davis that led to the company receiving business expansion incentives in late October. He hopes to bring more businesses to the city and county, which he said will increase sales tax revenue and make the region a more attractive place to live and work.
“It’s a sense of accomplishment knowing that you’re able to make a change,” Medina said. “You’re able to help people and of course being on the good side of it where it was a success, which I would try to do with existing businesses. We often forget about existing businesses and spend more time trying to recruit businesses here.”
Medina said the region needs to think outside of the box to attract companies.
“We can’t expect businesses to just come here and stay here,” he said. “We need to lure them to the county, sell ourselves and make sure we take care of the existing businesses and the news businesses as you would attract a customer or market yourself or a company.”
When it comes to being part of the county board, Medina said it’s common understanding that there’s give and take when you bring five individuals together.
“You want to create a good working environment; you want to understand that everyone may have a different opinion,” Medina said. “You have to basically embrace their decisions and you can’t get frustrated if something doesn’t go your way. You have to respect the decision that someone makes and that’s how I feel.”
