MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Marana’s newly appointed mayor, Jon Post sat down with KGUN 9 to discuss his background, goals while in office, and vision for the town.
Post will lead Marana at least until 2026 after being appointed mayor during a town council meeting on January 7.
The Marana native is no stranger to the town’s agricultural roots as his dad was a farm manager and Post himself started farming here in 1992. He is the owner of Post Farms and Marana Pumpkin Patch.
The business owner then began serving on the board of the Marana Chamber of Commerce.
“It was a great place to really start serving and learning about Marana,” Post said.
He then served on the town's planning and zoning commission for about a decade.
“I really enjoyed that,” Post said. “I thought, you know what, if I could just do this, I'd be happy I don't need to do anything else. But about 2008 Mayor Honea called me, there was a vacancy on the council, and he asked me to serve, and I just couldn't tell him, ‘no’.”
He was first appointed to the town council in January 2008. He had been serving as the town’s vice mayor since 2013. However, he never thought he would eventually serve as the town’s mayor.
“I was really, really happy in my role as the vice mayor. It allowed me the ability to accomplish things for the town, but yet not have to be that face. I was always kind of behind the scenes and working with the mayor, the other council members and the town management to get things done,” Post said. “And I really enjoyed that job."
However, now he’s ready to take his experience into this new role. He says he knows it’s something he can do well because he has the background needed.
“The only thing that I need to work on is the relationships. This job is about relationships, and that's honestly one of the most difficult things about it.”
He stresses the importance of building relationships at all levels; including with town residents and staff, Southern Arizona mayors and other elected officials.
“I find myself pretty good at developing relationships and finding things that I like about people so that I can work with them,” he said.
He says his number one priority is the quality of life for residents.
“You know, traffic, recreation, shopping, dining, ultimately, we want to attract jobs here to Marana, jobs that are abundant and high paying, “Post said.
Post says addressing traffic concerns is one of his main focuses.
“I want people to, for example, be able to feel safe that if they are getting off the freeway at Tangerine (road) they're not going to get rear-ended,” he said. “And so, we're hopeful that we're going to be able to go to construction on Tangerine interchange, the first phase of that this year. So that's pretty exciting.”
Growth plays a key part in his vision for the town because he says a community that is not growing, is a community that is dying.
“Growth is going to come to us, there’s no way we can stop the growth, nor should we in my opinion,” Post said. “Growth is going to come to us, so it's important to the best of our ability to guide that growth, to make sure that Marana continues to be someplace that people want to continue to live and people seek to live here and I think that we can do that.”
He says former mayor Ed Honea left a strong example for him to follow.
“If I can just be, you know, half of the mayor that Ed Honea was, I think that I will, we will have great success here in this town,” he said.
Post will serve in this role until a special election is held in 2026. The elected individual will finish out the remainder of Honea’s four-year term until 2028. Post says he is committed to serving the rest of Honea’s term and will for the position in the 2026 election. He says will potentially run again in 2028 if he feels it will be best for the town.
“It’s important to me, to make sure the town is in good hands. If I need to run again in four years, I've committed to that, I will do that,” Post said. But if there's somebody that comes along that can do the job better than me, I'm not somebody that needs to be a placeholder. If there's somebody that can do the job better than I can do it. I want them to do it.”
——
Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
