Craig Chown Email & Phone Number

United States

Florida

Chown Consulting Services (CCS) headed by Craig Chown provides business development, government relations, lobbying, public relations, community development, and management consulting services for selected clients. Our mission is to help clients accomplish their desired results and outcomes. For more comprehensive information, please refer to our website at www.chownconsult.com.

Tallahassee, Florida Area

Responsible for overall management, oversight, and supervision of the Bureau of General Services. Major areas of responsibility within the Bureau included facility construction and maintenance; Department insurance; inventory; telecommunications; purchasing, bid and contract process, fleet management, workers compensation insurance and employee safety; emergency management and disaster planning and response management (i.e., hurricanes, terrorism). I also completed several projects for the Secretary and Assistant Secretary as requested, and represented the Department with the Governor's Office and Legislature as needed.

Responsible for overall management, oversight, and supervision of statewide residential contracts and monitoring of state operated and contracted provider residential programs. Examples of accomplishments include: developed a residential bed tracking and vacancy monitoring system to maximize the use of existing statewide beds; coordinated the development of monitoring standards and guidelines for care and custody of youth in state operated and contracted provider residential programs; coordinated the development of standards and guidelines for competitive procurement of private residential services providers; tracked utilization of DJJ residential programs to minimize vacancy rates and maximize the use of existing state resources; and coordinated statewide training of Department staff for monitoring residential programs.

Responsible for policy and budget oversight of public safety agencies including the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Parole Commission, and Military Affairs. These agencies had combined budgets of over $3 billion. Primary work activities included review and approval of agency legislative budget requests; monitoring agency expenditures; review and recommended approval or denial of agency budget amendment requests; developed the Governor's annual Legislative Budget Requests (LBR) and input LBR requests into the LAS/PBS system; assisted agencies with the development of Long Range Strategic Planning goals, objectives, strategies, and performance outcome measures and evaluation of program success; participated in a workgroup to develop guidelines for agency long range strategic planning; worked on Governor's legislative and policy initiatives; and competed legislative bill analyses for Governor's consideration of approval or veto actions. I cooperated with and interacted with staff and members in the House and Senate regarding various budget, policy, and legislative issues as needed. I also briefed the Governor, OPB management, and the Florida Legislature as needed on budget, policy, and legislative issues.

Responsible for working with audit teams to conduct program performance and policy reviews of state operated and contracted programs. Examples of program areas audited include the Departments of Corrections (i.e., inmate work programs), Education (i..e., Blueprint 2000), Children and Family Services (i.e., Child Day Care Licensing), Developmental Sevices / Persons With Disabilities; and Business and Professional Regulation (i.e., licensure of medical doctors and nurses, construction contractors, and real estate professionals). During my employment with the Auditor General, I progressed from an Auditor I, Auditor II, Auditor III, to Auditor-In-Charge.