Jonathan Curtis: County Services Should Be Easy to Understand

Most people don't visit the County Clerk's Office often. When they do, it is usually for something important: recording a home purchase, getting a marriage license, applying for a passport or asking about a ballot.

Jonathan Curtis believes that at those moments, people deserve clear answers.

He is running for Deschutes County Clerk because he thinks county services should be secure, easy to reach and easy to understand.

Where he learned it

Curtis has spent much of his working life helping people through unfamiliar processes. As a housing manager in Madras and Redmond, he helped residents find local programs that might help with rent. As a sales manager, he trained people with no experience from the ground up.

In both jobs, he learned that explaining a process clearly is one of the most respectful things you can do for someone.

What he wants to change

Curtis wants more records and services reachable online, so residents can get what they need without extra trips. And when someone calls with a question, he wants them to get a straight answer.

He is a third-generation Bend local, a father, a former wildland firefighter and a small-business owner. The election is November 3, 2026.

Learn more: votejonathancurtis.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching People Who Had Never Sold Anything

From July to December 2025, I was the sales manager at Amtech here in Bend. I led a team of 15 people selling AI-powered secretaries and custom software to businesses. Here's the part I'm proudest of: some of the people on that team had never worked in sales before. Start at the beginning It's easy for a manager to hire experienced people, hand them a quota and say "go." I didn't want to run a team that way. When someone joined us with no sales background, I taught them the whole process from the start: how the product works, how a call should go, how to follow up, and what you can and can't promise a customer. My job covered hiring, onboarding, training and daily coaching, along with the less exciting parts like pipeline management, forecasting and reporting. But the training is what made the rest possible. A beginner who understands the process will outwork someone who is just guessing. Pay attention to how people fit together I also learned that a...
Read more

What Commercial Lending Taught Me About Serving the Public

In 2023 I took a job as a commercial loan consultant. It took me nine months to earn my first check. Nine months is a long time to keep showing up without a paycheck. But that job taught me something I still use every day: most people are not looking for a miracle. They are looking for someone who will explain the process, tell them the truth about it, and help them take the next step. A lot of the business owners I worked with were stuck on hard-money loans. Those loans can keep a business running, but they cost a lot. Part of my work was helping owners move to traditional lines of credit instead, so they could put more of their money back into their business. Some of those owners were right here in Central Oregon, and the financing helped them grow. Here's what stuck with me. The owners who struggled most weren't the ones with bad ideas. They were the ones nobody had walked through the paperwork. Lending has a lot of forms, deadlines and rules. If you don't know the sy...
Read more

Nine Kids, One Family

I grew up with eight siblings. When people hear that, the first question is usually some version of "how did that even work?" Honestly, I think growing up in a family that big shaped me in ways I'm still noticing. You're never the only one who matters In a family of nine kids, the world doesn't revolve around you. There are always other people with their own needs, their own plans and their own bad days. You learn to share. You learn to wait. And you learn that taking care of each other is just part of life. I think that's a big reason I've always been drawn to work that's about other people. On a fire crew, everybody depends on everybody. In property management, the job wasn't the buildings. It was the residents. Leading a sales team, my job was to help other people succeed. Now I'm the parent Today I'm a father myself, and being a dad has become the most important part of who I am. I'm a family man. My favorite days are simple o...
Read more