The Jones-Ivey ground game
"The ground game was all important. I knew that I needed to get out to the community and find out what it was they wanted." Thus, began our conversation at Kneaders over tea with one of Oro Valley's three new council members, Joyce Jones-Ivey.
Joyce began canvassing the community last February, right after she picked up her council candidate packet. She never stopped. "I started at the library at the opening ...and sometimes I stayed until closing," she noted. She walked Sun City, door-to-door. "We started at 10 o'clock in the morning and finished up around 4 or 5 in the evening. I wanted people to know that I had a heart for the concerns of the community."
Have a conversation with Joyce Jones-Ivey. You see that she is enthusiastic about her new job, excited to serve people of Oro Valley, respectful of you as an individual, and a lady full of hope for our community.
Overdevelopment completely changes the character of the community
"This is my third small community that I've lived in. The common thread among all of them was the over-development that was going on." One community grew to the point where she knew no-one. "I missed that small town feeling. The bureaucracy was just cumbersome to get your voice heard."
"They are going to blow this community up? Are you kidding me?"
So, Joyce, her husband Jesse (29 years with LAPD) and son Adam, sought a place to live. She looked at Marana but, in 2016, picked Oro Valley. "I came into Oro Valley. It was beautiful-just breathtaking....Then I started noticing the yellow signs. There were a lot of them. I started going to neighboorheed meetings." She couldn't believe what she heard. She thought: "They are going to blow this community up? Are you kidding me?"
They are not hearing us
Joyce observed that at council meetings residents got our 3 minutes [to speak] but we couldn't get anybody to listen to us. It was a waste of time. The developer got an hour." She continued "My, the way we were treated. If you disagreed, you were summarily dismissed. These are our elected officials. We voted them in office. And they are treating us like this?"
So, she decided to run for Council to change the attitude of leadership from developer to resident centric.
A "full-full" person
Joyce is a family person. She is one of 9 in her primary family. She has a twin sister who lives in Marana. She assured us that we can tell the difference so there will be no "substituting" at council meetings. "She wears an afro." Joyce is proudest of being "Adam's Mom!"
Joyce has met every challenge she's faced. And the Oro Valley council job will be her next one. But, from what we learned in our conversation with Joyce, it won't be her last one. "I love learning. I'm not very sure where I'm going to stop in this world."
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