Walton County's emergency director resigns

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Capt. Mike Barker, the director of Walton County’s Emergency Operations Center, resigned Friday, Sheriff’s Office officials said.

Barker left the Sheriff’s Office to pursue other career opportunities, said Capt. Shepard Bruner.

Lt. Joe Preston has stepped in as the interim emergency director. Sheriff Mike Adkinson will rotate people through the job until he assigns a permanent replacement.

The resignation comes after the height of the local emergency response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and at the beginning of the most active part of hurricane season. Forecasters have predicted the busiest hurricane season since 2005, which was a record year.

Bruner said Barker’s resignation won’t affect the county’s emergency operations. He said the Sheriff’s Office has at least two other captains with experience running EOCs, and added that several officials have emergency experience at the state level.

Barker could not be reached for comment.

He may have been worn out from the oil spill, Bruner said. As emergency chief, he was the “epicenter” of control — the county’s liaison to BP, the Coast Guard and the state.

“He worked 60-odd days straight without catching a day off,” Bruner said. “He postponed his wedding … worked day in, day out to try to resolve the situation.”

He said Barker did a “phenomenal” job with the oil spill.

Barker joined the Sheriff’s Office in 1982 as a deputy and became the county’s first full-time emergency director in 1989. According to the Sheriff’s Office website, he designed and implemented the county’s first 911 system.

He resigned from the post in 1997 because of what he said was a low salary and micro-management by the County Commission.

Barker returned as emergency director Jan. 1, 2009, when Adkinson became sheriff.