Brian M. Kelly

Brian has over 35 years of experience in the Fire Service, including over 20 years as Fire Chief of three California Fire Departments. He was the Fire Chief and Emergency Services Director in the City of Millbrae for 12 years, the City of Union City for three years, and the City of San Mateo for five years. He also served as the Fire Marshal of Sonoma County for three years.

Brian retired in 2008 from the City of San Mateo and has remained actively engaged in Regional and National projects to enhance the emergency response readiness of the Fire Service. He has also served as interim Fire Chief at two Fire Departments: Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District and the National Park Service Fire Department at the Presidio of San Francisco. While with Stanislaus Consolidated, in addition to being the interim Fire Chief, Brian conducted the executive recruitment for the new Fire Chief, and began the process of annexing another Fire District and developing a contract to provide fire protection services to the City of Oakdale.

Brian served as a consultant for the International Association of Fire Chiefs working on a FEMA-sponsored project team to introduce formal mutual aid systems to all 50 States in the Nation, as well as all territories and Tribal Nations. As part of this project, he worked with representatives from eight different states, including Alaska and Rhode Island, to develop fully functioning interagency mutual aid plans. In addition, he was a key member of a small group who worked on the development of regional inter-state operational plans.

During his Fire Service career, Brian was appointed to the State of California FIRESCOPE operations group, which is charged with maintaining and improving the California Mutual Aid System. The California Operations plans are being used as the model for the National Intrastate Mutual Aid System. He was also on the Board of Directors of the California Fire Chiefs Association, and he served as President of the San Mateo County Fire Chiefs Association for six years in the mid-1990s, when that group led a joint effort with the labor groups in San Mateo County to establish the San Mateo County Fire Service ALS Joint Powers Agreement. This Joint Powers Authority includes all of the Fire Agencies in San Mateo County. Brian represented the JPA in the development of the Joint Communications Center and the County Fire Service Automatic Aid and Operations Plans, which included complete boundary drops. The ALS JPA formed a public/private partnership with American Medical Services to jointly provide all advanced life support services in the County.

Brian also serviced as the Program Manager for California Task Force 3, which is one of the 28 FEMA sponsored Urban Search and Rescue Teams in the Nation. Task Force 3 has over 210 members, and must be ready to deploy anywhere in the Nation on four hours’ notice.

Brian has extensive practical leadership experience in a wide variety of Fire, EMS and Emergency Preparedness organizations. He is collaborative and participatory in his approach to leadership and he has significant labor relations experience.

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and extensive training through the National Fire Academy; California Fire State Fire Training. Disciplines included Fire Prevention, Fire Officer and Fire Chief, and the Emergency Management Institute.

Client Services provided by Brian include:

• Fire Service Evaluation and Assessment;
• Regional Collaboration, Partnerships and Shared Services;
• Labor Relations;
• Leadership Mentoring;
• Strategic Planning; and
• Agency Reorganization.