ORANGE BEACH, Ala. - Orange Beach council candidate J. Kris Jones has had more than $500,000 worth of civil judgments handed down against him since 2008, most stemming from a failed business due to the economic downturn and the oil spill, Jones said Friday.

Jones faces Place 5 incumbent Joni Blalock in Tuesday’s election. Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. at Orange Beach’s only polling place, the Community Center on Canal Road.

Two of the largest judgments, one for $206,550 and $106,550, were awarded to Donald W. Ray, former owner of Ray’s Marine Construction, according to Baldwin County records available to the public. Another, brought by the First National Bank of Baldwin County, totaled $138,254, also according to county records.

Three others totaled close to $75,000 combined.

“They were discharged in a bankruptcy and they shouldn’t still be in the record,” Jones said Thursday afternoon. “Now, it’s not a fact that I’m proud of. It’s the first and only time that I’ve filed bankruptcy.”

Jones said the judgments shouldn’t matter in the upcoming election.

“I’m in the process of trying to correct those things,” he said. “That doesn’t have anything to do with my managerial skills.

“I’ve been in Baldwin County since 1988 I’ve had several businesses, towing business, transportation company, several businesses that were successful that were sold. In a capitalist economy, sometimes things don’t go as planned. I certainly didn’t plan on losing money in those businesses and I certainly didn’t plan on leaving outstanding debt.”

Jones said he bought the business from Ray in 2005.

“Because of the oil spill and the downturn in the economy, it couldn’t support itself and as a result I had to file bankruptcy,” he said. “That’s the judgments to Donald Ray.”

The judgment to the bank, Jones said, had to do with a mortgage business that suffered the same fate.

“The bank thing had to do with a mortgage company that my wife owned and I was a 25 percent owner in and the same thing happened,” he said. “I thought my family was diversified. I didn’t realize that my construction business and my wife’s mortgage business were so volatile to the local economy.

“When they both went sour, we both lost our income streams. As a result, she didn’t file bankruptcy, but I had to. It was a matter of restructuring our debt to survive. It was a low point financially for me and it’s never happened before in 54 years.”