Craig Coffey serves as the Deputy County Administrator of Operations for Okaloosa County, overseeing six departments with over 650 employees, over $130 million in annual operating budgets and hundreds of millions of dollars in capital projects.
His purview ranges from Okaloosa County’s Airports, Tourism, EMS, Beach Safety and Emergency Management to Public works, Mosquito control, parks, solid waste, public transportation and utilities.
Mr. Coffey holds a Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Michigan University in Land Use Analysis (Planning) and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Central Florida.
He has over 30 years of government experience in the public sector with ever-increasing responsibilities and complexity. He has served for more than 18 years as a chief executive at several entities, and has a track record of judicious management of public funds.
Mr. Coffey’s diverse experience in areas of local government covers a range of issues currently being dealt with in Okaloosa County, including beach sand/dune issues, emergency management in natural disasters, tourism, large capital projects, short-term vacation rentals, economic development, county jails, and general aviation airports.
He began his professional career in 1988 with a five-year stint in Melbourne, Florida as a planner. Immediately afterward, Mr. Coffey served as a Planning and Public Works Director in Kentucky, and more than 5 years as a City Administrator in Iowa. Most recently he served for over 13 years as a County Administrator in Flagler and DeSoto Counties in Florida.
Mr. Coffey is a 16-year US Army veteran, primarily serving in the Army Reserves. He enlisted in the Army as a 17-year-old and earned a 2nd lieutenant’s commission in May of 1987 as a Military Police Officer, while completing his undergraduate studies. As an officer, he served as a platoon leader, staff officer and company commander. Mr. Coffey served for over nine months in Saudi Arabia and Iraq with the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps out of MacDill Air Force Base as part of Operations Desert Shield /Desert Storm. During his deployment, he was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division and earned that unit’s combat patch.
He currently lives in Niceville with his wife of 28 years-- Ginger (a 5th-generation native Floridian from Plant City) and their three sons. He loves the water to include fishing, boating/kayaking and exploring/sightseeing.
