Guilford County has a new assistant county manager.

Jason Jones, who worked for years as a budget analyst in the Guilford County Budget Department, has been named the new assistant county manager by Guilford County Manager Mike Halford, who only recently took that job.  Halford revealed Jones as his new right-hand man at the Guilford County Board of Commissioners retreat at Forest Oaks Country Club on Thursday, March 4.

Jones worked with Halford for four years when Halford served as Guilford County’s budget director.  Jones was the analytics and innovation manager for the department.  He also worked on many special projects. 

While in the Budget Department, Jones helped create tools that made the county’s financial data more transparent to the public and that helped put the complex numbers in context.

During a break in the retreat, Halford spoke very highly of Jones ­– who has a Masters of Public Administration from North Carolina State University.  Halford said that, in the Budget Department, Jones had done very impressive work related to the county’s partnerships with universities and community groups. 

Jones was the point man for a key joint project with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro called MetroLab.  The county and the university have joined together to collect research, analyze data and use information and collaborative thinking to address some of the problems facing the county.

Jones takes over the position that was vacated by the departure of former Guilford County Deputy Manager Clarence Grier.  Grier’s departure early this year followed on the heels of the exit of former Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing, who was shown the door by the new Democrat-run Guilford County Board of Commissioners just before Christmas.

Grier was hired as Guilford County’s deputy county manager in February of 2015 and now Jones, who has a slightly different title, will take on many of those responsibilities, but he will have some news ones as well.