Council confirms new Montgomery County fire chief

Corey Smedley previously served with Alexandria and Prince George’s County departments

July 9, 2024 5:48 p.m.

The Montgomery County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to confirm the appointment of Corey Smedley as chief of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS).

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. He was nominated May 30 for the post by County Executive Marc Elrich. The council voted on his appointment as part of the consent agenda during Tuesday’s council meeting.

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.

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The search for a new fire chief began after the departure of 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 has been 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.

In an interview with the council last month, Smedley emphasized the importance of fostering relationships and communication within and outside of the fire department.

“Building relationships is critical. When we have trust, we can give grace to each other during difficult times,” Smedley said. “Really, in a fire chief’s role, you’re like the facilitator, trying to bring together opposing views to accomplish the ultimate goal.”

Smedley has also 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 told the council in June. “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.”

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While Smedley’s appointment is historic, he told MoCo360 in a May interview that he 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.”

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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