Mark Jenkins

In July, Mark Jenkins was appointed to represent District 12 of the Metropolitan Council, representing communities from Maplewood to Hastings to Randolf Township after former District 12 Representative Susan Vento retired.
Jenkins took the time to answer some questions regarding his appointment, the district, and what District 12 residents should know about their new representative.
Why did you want to be on Met Council for District 12?
I have been active in civic life for more than 20 years, but I always had to balance that with my career.
Now I have more time to do what I love, engage with the communities and citizens in my district. Before this, I served on commissions and boards that addressed housing, economic development, parks, clean water, transit, and most recently, the Transportation Advisory Board for the Met Council.
When I saw that Sue Vento was retiring as the Council Member in my district I began to dig deeper into the Council and the role that the Council Members play in the seven-county region. I quickly realized that they work with the communities to support housing and economic development, champion parks and clean water, and provide robust transit and transportation for the region.
I thought ‘hey, I know a bit about all of these areas,’ and recognized that I would have teams of people from advisory boards, commissions, Met Council staff, and the community leaders and staff themselves to help me support our communities and the entire region.
What are the issues you see as most important to solve in District 12?
Most of the issues that I see as important to this district, or the entire region, won’t be “solved”, but managed.
For our district, I would love to say that we solved clean water issues decades ago, but the fact is that there are always new challenges to be addressed. With water the newest challenges are “forever chemicals” and water supply demand as corporate data centers begin to move into our district.
For transit and transportation, we had a pretty good system in the works in the 2010s and then the pandemic changed where we work and how we get there and how often we need to be there, and those changes still haven’t been settled five years later.
So, helping communities address current needs, and be a partner in preparing for whatever comes next is my role in those issues.
In your LinkedIn Bio, you said you want to take a more active role in civil civic engagement: "my next chapter is dedicated to advocating for what some partisans consider unnecessary, and I recognize as misunderstood, civil civic engagement."
What does civil civic engagement mean to you and why is it important to you in this moment?
Civic engagement has always been my passion.
I get frustrated when people complain about government and then say things like, “nobody asked my opinion” or “I didn’t get a say in that.”
The fact is, there are hundreds of open seats on boards and commissions at the state, county and city level that are just waiting for citizen participation.
I have a hard time letting these great opportunities pass me by.
Why do you think civil civic engagement is considered unnecessary, and misunderstood?
The key word is civil.
There are people on the outer edges of both sides of the political spectrum who thrive on the theater of politics instead of working on broad engagement to build good policy.
I find civility makes civic engagement more fun and the outcomes more valuable to more people.
Can you tell me about your involvement in Majority in the Middle?
I am a Board Member for Majority in the Middle. I work with several other civic leaders on our board to support the organization’s mission of “Politics we can be proud of.”
You can find more at https://www.majoritymiddle.org/values.
What else should people know about you?
While the majority of the work of the Metropolitan Council is done in partnership with the townships, cities, and counties in my district and the region, I am always happy to meet with individuals and organizations in the district to get their opinions on what they see as the important issues are that they face in the region.