County fire chief nominee: Success is all about building relationships

County Council interviewed veteran firefighter Tuesday for the post

June 25, 2024 7:43 p.m.

Fire chief nominee Corey Smedley told the Montgomery County Council on Tuesday that he believes achieving success as head of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) would depend on fostering relationships with union members, elected officials and those served by the department.

“Building relationships is critical. When we have trust, we can give grace to each other during difficult times,” said Smedley, who was nominated May 30 for the post by County Executive Marc Elrich. “Really, in a fire chief’s role, you’re like the facilitator, trying to bring together opposing views to accomplish the ultimate goal.”

The search for a new fire chief began after former chief Scott Goldstein who left nearly a year ago to become the fire chief for Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue in Kelso, Washington. Gary Cooper is currently serving as interim fire chief. MCFRS covers about 500 square miles and serves more than 1 million county residents. It handles more than 100,000 emergency calls for service each year, according to department data.

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If confirmed by the council, Smedley, 53, will be the county’s first Black fire chief, as well as the first fire chief hired from outside the department, according to officials. The council hasn’t scheduled a vote on whether to appoint Smedley.

County Chief Administrative Officer Rich Madaleno told the council Tuesday that Smedley is the “type of person who, as a leader, is concerned about the people who will be putting their lives on the line for our residents.”

If appointed, Smedley would bring years of experience as a rank-and-file fire fighter and department leader.

Most recently, he served as deputy chief of Prince George’s County Fire and EMS service. Prior to that, he was the City of Alexandria’s first Black fire chief, serving for more than four years, and spending more than 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 and returned to a post with the Prince George’s County department, where he previously had served more than 20 years.

When asked by Council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) what he would do to bolster MCFRS’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, Smedley said doing so also boils down to relationships.

“We will put together a communication strategy so that we can make sure that we are communicating accurately what is acceptable, what’s not acceptable, and together we can find a path forward,” Smedley said.

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Smedley said he’s passionate about prevention efforts and wants to address ways to prevent unnecessary hospital visits and assess what other services that the department’s frequent callers may need.

“We can be partnering with our different stakeholders, like the health department. … If I [am a resident who has] to make a determination on my rent, medicine or food and I can’t [pay for] them all, we can identify early on what those challenges are, bringing our resources together collectively with our stakeholders for residents,” Smedley said. “We can do a better job valuing what those priorities are and reducing the cost of you going to the hospital and or starting to become sick.”

Smedley said he has already spoken to county health officials about various issues affecting residents and wants to create strategies to help areas of the county most affected by fentanyl overdoses.

When asked by Friedson how he would handle department needs while facing budget challenges, Smedley noted his years of experience, saying “I have probably built more budgets than I can remember.”

“We need to be looking at new creative ways to be very efficient with resources, working with our procurement office and see if there’s opportunities in how we procure and the way we do things,” Smedley said. He gave the example of pursuing grant funding for programs the county budget doesn’t cover.

While the council did not take action Tuesday on Smedley’s nomination, councilmember and Public Safety Committee Chair Sidney Katz (D-Dist. 3) indicated he would support Smedley’s appointment.

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“You, sir, are most impressive,” Katz said.

Smedley’s nomination is the second that Elrich has proposed 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 council did not vote on whether to confirm Bailey within the time period mandated by county code. The council never interviewed Bailey.

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 was 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.

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