John Craig began working as Los Alamos County’s second Deputy Manager in April. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

When John Craig started in April as a Deputy County Manager for Los Alamos County, he brought experience that not only spans from the East Coast to the West Coast, but all over the world.

Despite all the different locations he has worked in, Craig’s desire has remained unchanged: to be a public servant.

When he earned his master’s in public administration in New York City, Craig said he started looking for work in either the local government or for the non-profit sector. He initially worked for Moody’s Investors Service, which rates bonds for local governments.

“That was great, I found out for me,” Craig said. “…I learned the ins and outs of government from the private sector.”

After his first job, Craig moved on to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a performance manager, implementing performance measures for all 73 District of Columbia government departments. This position allowed him the chance to collaborate with all areas of government, Craig said.

“I learned a lot about what local government is and how it operates.”

When his wife took a job in Croatia, Craig took his experience and skills internationally – he worked as a consultant for governments in Serbia, Sri Lanka and other countries.

After returning to the U.S., Craig and his family lived in Vermont where he served as a city manager, before moving to Maryland to become a county manager. In 2015 he relocated to Albuquerque when he was appointed as the deputy city manager of Rio Rancho. When he took a job as a deputy county manager in California just before the COVID pandemic hit, Craig said his wife and two children stayed in Albuquerque to continue going to their high school and he soon wanted to return to New Mexico. He was offered the job as director of general services for the City of Albuquerque. He was working there when he saw Los Alamos was looking to hire a second deputy county manager and said he feels fortunate that he was selected. The second deputy county manager is Linda Matteson.

As deputy county manager, Craig said he works with a variety of County divisions, including Finance, Budget, IT, Parks, Recreation, Libraries, Open Spaces and Trails, Social Services, and the County’s Community Broadband project.

But overall, Craig said, “For me, being involved in local government is the ideal profession. The concept is fairly simple: a group of citizens comes together and pools their resources, in the form of taxes, in order to create a community and make each other’s lives better.”

Working for Los Alamos has been great and Craig added he is impressed by the public’s willingness to be involved in county government.

“I enjoy the process of getting everyone together … to make our county a better place to live.”

It is not just the public that impresses Craig, but he said his colleagues have been great, too.

“They embraced me as I moved in and are showing me the ropes.”

County Manager Anne Laurent welcomes Craig to the County team.

“John Craig joined the County Manager’s team at the end of April this year with an impressive work and education background in finance and municipal management,” she said. “He has jumped right in to oversee our Administrative Services (budget, finance, records and information management) and Community Services (parks, recreation, social services, and libraries) departments. I feel very fortunate to have such excellent deputy support from both Linda Matteson and John Craig.”

Given his wide experience, Craig said he feels he can offer a lot to Los Alamos.

“I really feel that my diverse background allows me to relate to others and draw on my experiences to be able to look at matters through a new lens.”
For example, Craig noted that while working in a small city in Vermont, a major infrastructure replacement project was done along the entirety of the town’s main street, tearing up the entire downtown area, and blocking off the entrances to every business in town.

Craig organized a “Save Our Stores” outreach campaign, working for nearly a year before the project began to encourage the local community to continue to support the small businesses during the major construction project. Through the combined efforts of government and businesses, Craig said business owners reported better sales than the year before the construction project.

“I believe I can make an impact on what we do…,” he said.

In his new position, Craig said he is eager to continue to learn about the important issues in the Los Alamos community.

“Los Alamos County government can affect people every day and make their lives better. That is the whole purpose of why we are here … to make our community better,” he said.