Biography

Craig Malin's career in community building and organizational development spans three decades.  Serving as Village Administrator in Poynette, Wisconsin, since 2021, Mr. Malin has experience with six cities, two counties, a metropolitan planning organization and park district.  He also drafted the charter for a model public school (more here) with a curriculum centered on environmental science and responsible citizenship.      

Craig holds three Master’s degrees (Public Administration, Human Resources Development, Urban Planning & Policy).  He was the first city manager to complete both the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative and Senior Executive in State & Local Government program at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, while his professional recognition at the national level includes being the only local government official selected as Assistant Manager, City Manager and County Leader of the Year.  

From 2001 to 2015, Craig set the Davenport City Administrator tenure record, working for eight city councils and four mayors.  Crime was cut by 60%, the population went up, the City-owned ballpark went from being mud-encrusted from a Mississippi River flood to never flooding again and being named the best ballpark in America.  The U.S. Conference of Mayors named Davenport the Most Livable Small City in America and Davenport staff became the most professional in the nation as well, becoming the first city to have fully accredited police, fire, public works, parks and library departments. In Davenport, Malin also revolutionized government transparency, with a City website that posted every public records request, had searchable public expenditures down to the penny and automatically posted his incoming and outgoing emails, verbatim.  

As Seaside, California's City Manager from 2016 to 2021, Mr. Malin advanced education initiatives with the local school district and university, while partnering with other local governments to secure tens of millions to remove blighted barracks on a former Army base (Fort Ord) to spur redevelopment.  He personally led numerous community-building efforts including remaking Seaside’s downtown, renovating City Hall, reimagining its largest neighborhood park, and involving citizens and students in the creation of a “Campus Town” project; a project that is both the largest development - with the most affordable housing - ever approved in Seaside and - with its mixed-use, pedestrian-focused design - carbon-negative.  He was asked back to serve as Interim City Manager in 2024, and did so for seven months, flying back and forth to Wisconsin each week.       

Mr. Malin is a member of the American Society for Public Administration.  He was a member of the International City / County Management Association (ICMA) for more than thirty years and served on numerous national ICMA and NLC committees, including founding the ICMA Sustainable Communities Committee and rewriting the credentialing exam for the profession.  He was also an AICP credentialed planner for more than twenty years.

Having been a community volunteer everywhere he has worked, Craig is currently a volunteer firefighter in Poynette.