User:Y2hyaXM/sandbox/Julian Jones

Julian Earl Jones Jr. (born 1962 or 1963) is an American politician who has served as a member of the Baltimore County Council representing its fourth district since 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, Jones previously served as the chair of the Baltimore County Council from 2018 to 2019, and again from 2021 to 2024.

Background
Jones was born and raised in east Baltimore. He was one of four children born to father Julian Earl Jones Sr. and mother Margaret Wilkins. Jones graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in 1981, afterwards attending the Community College of Baltimore County, where he earned an associate degree, and later the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in information systems management.

Jones has worked with the Anne Arundel Fire Department since he was a student at UMBC, eventually becoming the department's first African-American division chief. He was sent to New Orleans with the Maryland Task Force following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Jones also previously served as the president of the Hernwood Elementary School parent-teacher association.

Political career
Jones became involved with politics in 2006, when he was elected to the Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee.

In 2010, Jones unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Baltimore County councilmember Kenneth N. Oliver, who edged out Jones in the Democratic primary election by a margin of 98 votes. Following his defeat, Jones launched an unsuccessful write-in campaign against Oliver in the general election. In November 2010, party officers petitioned to the Maryland Democratic Party to remove Jones from the central committee for allegedly violating state bylaws by running the write-in campaign. He ran again for the county council seat in 2014, this time defeating Oliver by a margin of 11 percent in the Democratic primary and running unopposed in the general election.

Baltimore County Council
Jones was sworn into the Baltimore County Council on December 1, 2014.

Jones served as the chair of the Baltimore County Council from 2018 to 2019, and again from 2021 to 2024. He is the first African-American person to chair the council and is longest serving council chair in county history, having been elected to an unprecedented third consecutive term in 2023. In this capacity, Jones oversaw the selection of a successor for Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, the county's responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and to a lawsuit challenging the county's legislative maps, and supported legislation regulating police use of force. He was also critical of the Baltimore County Inspector General's Office, which he claimed used "intimidating" investigative tactics and targeted African American women, and supported measures aimed at limiting the office's independence from county officials.

In April 2022, the Baltimore County inspector general found that Jones violated county policy by including a "donate" button for his political campaign in official emails to constituents. According to the report, Jones included the donate button in "at least" 40 emails between April 2021 and January 2022, and that on two occasions constituents responded to the emails saying that they intended to donate to his campaign, but concluded that Jones had not intentionally violated county policy. He defended the emails following the report, saying that there was no evidence the donate button led to any campaign contributions and that his aides used the wrong template for constituent-related emails, and criticized the Inspector General for "researching and looking at every one of my emails" in the investigation.

In November 2022, the Baltimore County inspector general found that the county improperly paid nearly $70,000 to repave an alley after its owner brought the issue to Jones, whose involvement "effective changed the process that had been used" to decide whether the county would repave the alley. According to the report, Jones called the chief of highway design after receiving the developer's request to ask about the alley, After the chief told Jones that the alley would not qualify for repaving, Jones responded with "words to the effect that they did not care and they wanted it to be done". The inspector general sought to interview Jones as part of its investigation, but Jones declined after learning that the interview would be recorded. Jones defended himself following the report, saying that he never spoke with the chief of highway design and falsely claiming that the county owned the repaved alley.

In December 2023, during debate on a bill to permanently enshrine the Office of the Inspector General into law, Jones proposed a package of controversial amendments to limit the investigative powers of the inspector general, including provisions to establish an oversight board for the office, require the inspector general to submit reports to the county council before publication, and allowing the reimbursement of legal fees of county employees cleared of wrongdoing, which he said would put a "check" on the inspector general's office. Jones' amendments prompted criticism from county residents and officials, including Inspector General Kelly Madigan, who charged that the amendments would infringe on the board's independence. Jones withdrew his amendments later that month, and the inspector general bill was passed unanimously by the county council.

Personal life
Jone is married to Sabrina Heyward Jones. Together, they have three children, live in Woodstock, Maryland, and are active members of New Antioch Baptist Church in Randallstown, Maryland.

Crime and policing
In March 2020, Jones introduced a bill to create a voluntary private security camera registry within the county to help detectives identify crime suspects. The bill unanimously passed the county council.

In June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, Jones introduced a bill to ban police chokeholds, require police to use de-escalation methods before applying physical force, and create an "early intervention system" within the county police department to prevent police brutality. After the Baltimore County Council voted 4-3 to table the bill in August 2020, he introduced several of the bill's provisions as individual bills and another bill to limit no-knock warrants. In September 2020, Jones and Baltimore County executive Johnny Olszewski reintroduced the previously tabled police reform bill, which passed 6-1 in October 2020.

Environment
In February 2023, Jones voted against the Bring Your Own Bag Act, which banned plastic bags at large retailers and charged customers $0.05 per paper bag in checkout, which he claimed would be an "added burden on customers". Before the bill went into effect, Jones supported proposals to weaken the bill, including amendments to exempt liquor stores and restaurants and to exempt certain kinds of paper and plastic bags from the five cent charge.

Redistricting
In October 2021, Jones said that he supported creating a second minority-majority district on the Baltimore County Council, citing the county's population. In November 2021, however, he proposed a new county council map with just one minority-majority district, claiming that other county councilmembers believed it would be "difficult" to do so without splitting communities of interest. Jones' map prompted criticism from civil rights groups and activists, including the county's NAACP chapters, who successfully sued to strike down the new county council maps in February 2022. Following this, Jones introduced a new redistricting plan that still only included one majority minority district, which was approved by U.S. District Court judge Lydia Kay Griggsby in March 2022.

National politics
In November 2018, Jones attended a rally in Catonsville, Maryland to support the Mueller special counsel investigation.