Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Administrator: 'Super impressed with the dedication'
Mark Neary poses for a photo in his office at the County Administration building in Shelton on Nov. 16.
Mark Neary is excited to be in Mason County and see what the county can accomplish after being hired as the county administrator.
Neary was born in Walla Walla and graduated from Oregon State University with a business administration degree with an emphasis in accounting. He moved back to Washington, where he's remained his entire professional career. He began his career working for the state Auditor's office.
"It was on the local government side, so it really gave me an opportunity to see the different forms of municipal corporations and how they worked," Neary said. "(I) really enjoyed that part."
He then transitioned and worked for the city of Auburn in its utility division for a couple years before moving to Thurston County as the financial services division manager for the auditor's office while raising his family in Grays Harbor County. Neary was appointed by the commissioner's office to be the director of central services for five years.
In 2013, former secretary of state Kim Wyman asked Neary to come work with her and was the deputy and assistant secretary of state since 2015 before taking the job in Mason County.
When he was in college, Neary said he never thought about working in government.
"As I got into auditing for the state auditor's office, I really saw there the importance of local government and the services provided to the citizens within their communities," Neary said. "I think that's what really drew me to the government side of things. I've enjoyed a career of almost 30 years now of working in different levels of government. I'm excited to get back to the local side though. The state side, you're often focused on creating laws and kind of the rule book for how everybody else gets to operate and it's a big system that takes a lot of effort and a lot of pieces to move or make any headway and coming back to local government, I'm excited about actually getting into the local side of things where you can actually direct change and make improvements and be a part of it with the local community."
Wyman stepped down Nov. 19 to serve as election security lead for the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Neary was happy to see his former colleague get appointed by the Biden administration.
"Secretary Wyman was an amazing mentor, so I worked with her for a lot of years. Gosh, I think we started working together in 1999 and really worked fairly closely together since then," Neary said. "She was an amazing leader in the sense that she was principle based, so she never let the politics influence the work. We identified principles and goals that we had and those were based on what's good for the people of Washington state. Working under a leader like that that had that approach really taught me the importance and it's a lot easier to defend something that's based on principles. People aren't always going to agree with the decisions that we make but if they can understand the principles that make those decisions on, I think it's important to get acceptance and buy-in. I'm super excited for her going to the federal side of things, she's going to do an amazing job because she actually approaches it from that apolitical perspective of what is good for the country."
Before arriving in Mason County, Neary worked closely with county Auditor Paddy McGuire during his time at the state auditor's office. Through his work in Thurston County, he worked with Mason County and shared information and resources.
He has enjoyed getting acclimated to his new role.
"I'm super impressed with the dedication of the staff here and how hard they work with what little they have in terms of resources and I think they've done an amazing job," Neary said. "I'm really excited to get to know some of the other elected officials and get closer with some of the department heads to see how we can continually expand on this amazing foundation that already exists to better work as a team I think as we move into the future and how do we share information with each other and make sure that when we speak from the county, we speak with a single voice and the commissioners are given all of the information that they need to make significant decisions that they have."
Neary said he's met with each of the commissioners and heard their perspectives on what their goals are for Mason County and believes they are attainable. He was taken on a tour of the county with Public Works Director Loretta Swanson.
In his spare time, he enjoys hunting, fishing and hiking and has spent some time in the Olympics hiking.
He said some of his goals for the county are sustainability and how to better provide services to the community.
"I'm just excited to be here," Neary said. "I'm super impressed with the dedication of the employees here at the county and what they're able to get done. I'm hopeful that I'm going to be able to add value to that and continue to improve what the county has already built."
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