Chris Kopp returns to Longboat Key as new support services director

Returning to work for the town of Longboat Key felt like a homecoming for Chris Kopp. 

Kopp recently took over the role of support services director after a little over a year working for Manatee County. Before his time with the county, Kopp worked for the town’s Code Enforcement office. 

“When this position (support services director), that opportunity, came back open, it was definitely something I jumped on,” Kopp said.

Kopp spent three years with the town’s Code Enforcement Department before leaving in 2023 to work for Manatee County. There, he became the workforce development manager for the Human Resources Department. 

He spent a year and a couple of months there, and, while he valued his time there, he still missed being a part of Longboat Key. 

“I started day one, on a Monday, and then on Tuesday I immediately had kind of that regret and wanting to come back,” Kopp said. “But I enjoyed my time over there.”

His first day back with Longboat Key was July 1, and he had about a week to shadow former Director Carolyn Brown, who retired from the position. Being able to see some old coworkers and familiar faces in Longboat Key was part of the reason why Kopp was ready to come back. 

“What you put on paper in a job description is nothing compared to the community you work for, the community you work with. That’s something the town of Longboat Key cannot put in the job description, and why I came back,” Kopp said.

The support services director role touches almost every other department in the town. It will also look a little different, now incorporating risk management while handing Tennis Center duties off to the Public Works Department. 

The department as a whole does exactly what the title suggests: supports other departments. 

“My role is to support them (town departments), it’s to support the town manager,” Kopp said. “And then, ultimately, to support the citizens and the commissioners to make the town move forward.”

One of the things Kopp hopes to accomplish is to implement an internal and external dashboard that will allow residents and staff to see what’s going on within the town. 

“I want to make sure that our citizens and our internal staff understand what’s going on, the insides and outsides of the town,” Kopp said. “I want to make sure that our citizens can visually see what our town is doing for them.”

He said the goal is to make the dashboard easy to understand with metrics that outline each goal. This will include things like public safety response times, current projects out to bid and financial transactions. 

It’s about public transparency as much as it is about project management and efficiency for town staff, Kopp said. 

Even though Longboat Key’s staff is small, Kopp said a lot gets accomplished, and it will be effective to have a dashboard where all the projects are displayed and trackable. 

“There’s a lot of moving pieces in such a small town,” Kopp said. “We have just as much as our surrounding counties, we just do it smaller, and I think we do it better.”

Passion for public service

Kopp graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, before entering the Marine Corps for eight years. 

After his service, he became a police officer for 15 years and, during that period, started a company called Lockdown International. With that company, Kopp organized active shooter safety training courses for organizations across the country and developed a door barricade device. 

In February 2018, a tragic school shooting occurred at Kopp’s alma mater. That hit close to home, he said, and it led him to speak on Capitol Hill to the Federal Commission on School Safety. 

Lockdown International was doing well until the COVID-19 pandemic began, Kopp said. After the start of the pandemic, fewer people wanted in-person training. Kopp and his family decided to move back to Florida, where he began working for the town as a code enforcement officer.

But the desire to continue training others was still front of mind.  

“Training was always my passion, I absolutely love training,” Kopp said. 

This passion ultimately led to his decision to try the role at Manatee County. Now, as support services director, Kopp will be involved with the onboarding process for town employees and continue that passion. 

Kopp said that even while he was absent from Longboat Key’s staff, he stayed connected to the community. 

“Even when I left Longboat Key, I gave out my personal cellphone,” Kopp said. “I still stayed in touch with people and it had nothing to do with the work, it was good people. I made friends here, it wasn’t just a job.”

That connection included offering scam prevention courses at St. Mary, Star of the Sea. 

Public service has always been a big part of Kopp’s life, he said, and something he shares with his family. His wife is a teacher and his sons are in public safety. 

On a day off, Kopp said he enjoys anything with his family, whether that’s trips to Disney or geocaching around the area.