Corey Smedley, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich’s nominee for a new county fire chief, says his goal if appointed is to “figure out how to put himself out of business” by preventing disasters.
“One of the things that we’re going to do when I first get here is we’re going to dust off [incident] reports and evaluate what have we learned from that? What have we implemented, and what are we going to do now to improve so we can minimize the risk to the community?” Smedley, who served as a deputy chief of Prince George’s County Fire and EMS service, told MoCo360 in an interview Wednesday evening.
Elrich nominated Smedley on Thursday morning to be the chief of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) during a press conference attended by county and fire department officials at the department’s Station 32 in Rockville.
If confirmed by the County Council, Smedley will be the county’s first Black fire chief, as well as the first fire chief hired from outside the department, according to officials.
But Smedley, 53, doesn’t want the focus to be on his race.
“I didn’t control being a Black male. That’s how I was born, that’s just what occurred. What I did control was my career,” Smedley said. “What I can tell you though, is that Montgomery County is a very diverse community. And I’m really excited and intrigued about getting to know the community … and learning the culture of these many different nationalities, so that we can understand and you can be your authentic self and that’s what we exactly want you to be.”
The search for a new fire chief began after former chief Scott Goldstein stepped down in July. Gary Cooper is currently serving as interim fire chief. MCFRS covers about 500 square miles and serves over 1 million county residents. It handles over 100,000 emergency calls for service each year, according to department data.
Smedley has held his post in the Prince George’s County department since January. Prior to that, he was the City of Alexandria’s first Black fire chief, serving for more than four years, and spent over eight years with that fire department. While he was in Alexandria, he oversaw implementation of the city’s first collective bargaining agreement for firefighters. He retired from the Alexandria department in January. Before taking the post in Alexandria, he had served more than 20 years with the Prince George’s County fire department.
“Corey has demonstrated leadership over a number of different areas. So he’s pretty well suited for doing this job,” Elrich said in an interview with MoCo360 on Wednesday. “I think he understands the direction we want to go into as we try to evolve this department.”
Elrich said his priorities in searching for a new chief were to find someone who had led a large department, specifically a joint fire and emergency services department, and had experience working with labor unions. For Elrich, Smedley checked all those boxes.
“Frankly, in our conversations, [Smedley] was very kind of down to earth and human. I think one thing the department needs is a little less military approach to things and a little bit more of, you know, ‘we’re all people here and we’re trying to solve problems together,’ ” Elrich said.
Smedley’s nomination is the second that Elrich has made for the position. In November, he nominated MCFRS Division Chief Charles Bailey for the role. However, Elrich let Bailey’s nomination expire in March after the County Council did not vote on whether to confirm Bailey within the time period mandated by county code.
The decision not to proceed with Bailey’s nomination followed the release just days prior of a memorandum by the Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General (OIG) concerning a senior MCFRS employee. According to the memorandum, a senior MCFRS employee engaged in misconduct in 2019 and 2021, violating the Code of Conduct. The identity of the employee is unknown.
Elrich and officials in his office told MoCo360 they could not comment on the identity of the unnamed fire official in the OIG report or whether Bailey was connected to the report because it is a personnel matter. Elrich defended his choice of Bailey in the days following the dropped nomination after the county firefighters’ union criticized Elrich’s selection process.
Elrich said he believes the union will approve of Smedley.
“They’ve done their homework on Corey’s background, they’ve talked with people and other departments. I think they’re comfortable that he is consistent … with how they wanted to see relations between the chief’s office and the rank and file,” Elrich said.
A representative with the Montgomery County chapter of the International Association of Firefighters union did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s request for comment.
“I think we did better this time than last time. Obviously, there was some controversy around the previous nominee. The fact that you got initial agreement around both volunteer, the career, and the union, that’s a good thing,” Councilmember Will Jawando (D-At-large) told MoCo360 after Thursday’s press conference. “He’ll have a lot on his plate, but I think it’s a good sign if you’re starting with a lot of people on the same page.”
Smedley said he looks forward to working with the union.
“As a fire chief, you make the fewest decisions, but you make the hardest decisions. You have to set the foundation to empower your workforce to be able to make decisions. When you think about what we do, we send people into harm’s way as a regular occurrence, and they have to make life saving decisions on a regular basis,” Smedley said. “It’s building those relationships, giving people a seat at the table and demonstrating that they have value so that we all can collectively find the best solution for our problems.”
MCFRS chief spokesperson Pete Piringer said Wednesday night he “couldn’t be more pleased” with the choice, and that he’s worked with Smedley personally.
“It’s going to be challenging. It’s the first time that the department’s had somebody from the outside come in in a leadership position like fire chief, but if anybody can do it, we have the confidence in Chief Smedley,” Piringer said.
Smedley said he and his wife are planning a move to Montgomery County.