Former Harford County Executive David Craig was named state secretary of planning by Gov.-elect Larry Hogan on Thursday.

Hogan announced the appointment of Craig and three other new cabinet secretaries at noon press conference in Annapolis. Craig ended his nine and a half year tenure as county executive on Dec. 1.

Craig confirmed early Thursday morning that he was offered the planning post by Hogan and accepted.

A lifelong Havre de Grace resident, Craig lost to Hogan in last June’s gubernatorial primary, one of the closest such GOP primary contests ever. He then actively supported Hogan in his successful general election campaign against Democrat Anthony Brown.

Craig, 65, said Hogan had asked him about joining the new administration several weeks ago and eventually said he wanted him to take a cabinet level position.

Craig said he had told Hogan he was interested in doing something “to help the municipalities and counties bounce back” from the rough treatment he believes they received during the eight-year administration of outgoing Gov. Martin O’Malley.

“Planning [secretary] looked very good to me,” he said, noting he would be working closely with the Maryland Municipal League and Maryland Association of Counties, two organizations which he has led in the past.

He also mentioned that being able to work with the Maryland Historical Trust, which is under the Department of Planning, was also appealing because of his interest in historic preservation.

He said he learned what position he would be getting when Hogan phoned him while he and his wife were on a week-long trip to Paris from which they returned to the United States on Monday.

“I said that would be absolutely fine,” he said of the offer.

Hogan had originally planned to announce his final cabinet picks on Tuesday, but canceled a press conference because of the snowstorm. The new governor will take office Jan. 21.

Hogan previously named James D. Fielder Jr., of Bel Air, as his appointments secretary and Harford native Stephen Moyer as secretary of public safety and correctional services. Craig said Moyer was one of his students when he taught history at Edgewood High School.

Before becoming county executive in mid-2005, Craig served two separate stints as mayor of Havre de Grace, was also a member of the Havre de City Council and served single terms in the Maryland House of Delegates (1991-95) and State Senate (1995-99). He is retired from Harford County Public Schools, where he taught history and later served as a middle school assistant principal.

Although it has been around in some iteration since the 1930s, the Maryland Department of Planning did not become a cabinet level agency until 2000. It was elevated to that status by then-Gov. Parris Glendening, as the agency responsible for implementing his statewide Smart Growth Program, under which the state imposed development standards on local government that are tied to many state funded grant programs.

Smart Growth, which “concentrates new development and redevelopment in areas that have existing or planned infrastructure to avoid sprawl,” according to the planning department website, became and remains a point of contention politically, particularly in the relationship between the state and many of its counties and municipalities.

The program, however, is prominently featured on the department’s website, along with the department’s role as clearinghouse for state grants to local governments and as a developer of demographic and related information for use by the state and local governments.

The department also administers a similar program, called PlanMaryland, which also has engendered criticism at the local government level.

“PlanMaryland is a statewide policy that sets a course to grow where it makes sense while protecting valuable resources such as waterways, farmland and forests,” the PlanMaryland website states. “It aims to create sustainable growth by directing state agencies to target their resources to help achieve smart growth at the local level and for Maryland’s counties and municipalities to identify their growth and preservation areas to meet land use, planning and development goals.”

Craig said his new job will also involve serving on “six or eight different commissions.”

The department’s offices are in the State Center complex in Baltimore.

Craig said he met in Annapolis with Hogan and some of the transition staff upon his return from Paris. He spoke at the winter meeting of the Maryland Association of Counties in Cambridge Wednesday.