Joseph Kreins is a tenured law enforcement executive with over 40 years working with cities, counties, and special districts. He has worked as an independent government and law enforcement consultant for 15+ years and has served as a POST-certified facilitator for law enforcement agencies in team building and strategic planning in numerous police departments and cities. He has experience working with City Managers and City Councils with goal setting, coaching, mentoring, and budget development.  Additional services include leadership development, executive recruitment, promotional processes, and organizational assessments. Kreins has become a subject matter expert in managing executive transitions in law enforcement agencies and working with cities to develop goal-setting and strategic planning.

Jon’s contributions are often behind the scenes—gathering data, conducting research, and developing actionable recommendations based on evidence and strategic insight. Over the past 35 years, Jon worked with both private and public sector employers, including professional and managerial positions in psychiatric treatment facilities, adolescent residential care, child protective services, human resources, benefit administration, and, most recently, fiscal and operational oversight for a large public agency.

Before affiliating with MRG, Jon retired as the Administrative & Fiscal Operations Manager for Placer County. He served as the Benefit Manager overseeing an annual budget of $52 million for employee and retiree benefits. He led a team of administrative, professional, and management staff, ensuring accurate and timely HR/benefits transactions for more than 3,000 employees. His work ensured compliance with labor agreements and legal codes, while also providing strategic HR support to multiple departments and elected officials. His efforts included workforce planning, recruitment, budget workshops, and departmental restructuring. Jon’s collaborative and solution-oriented approach has supported a wide range of personnel functions, including classification and compensation, recruitment and selection, fiscal reporting, performance management, and employee relations. He has helped departments design effective organizational structures and staffing models and has implemented policies and procedures aligned with state and federal laws. He also provided training on medical leave policies, harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.

With over 15 years of experience in Health and Human Services, Jon supervised Placer County’s 24-hour emergency response team, addressing child and adult protective services and mental health crises for a population of over 300,000 residents. He managed the Children’s Emergency Shelter for 5 years, providing safe housing for youth removed from unsafe environments. He also led the implementation of the Children’s System of Care Team Decision Making (TDM) model to support family reunification.

Jon holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. He earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix and was a Senior Certified HR Professional credential from the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR). He also completed the Human Resources Academy Certificate Program at California State University, Sacramento.