Until his retirement, Chief Gary was the Fire Chief of the Livermore–Pleasanton Fire Department. Now in his 47th year in the Fire Service, Chief Gary began as a volunteer and worked his way up through the ranks, including his service as a Paramedic for five years.
Chief Gary started his career with the City of Poway in San Diego County, attaining the rank of Battalion Chief / Fire Marshal. He subsequently served as the Administrative Battalion Chief for the Carlsbad Fire Department in San Diego County. He was appointed Fire Chief for the City of Livermore, California, in January 1994, and two years later, he successfully facilitated the peer-to-peer merger of the Livermore and Pleasanton Fire Departments into one seamless 10-company department, from which he retired as Chief. This successful consolidation was awarded the esteemed Helen Putnam Award for Excellence by the California League of Cities in 1999.
Chief Gary has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Public Administration from San Diego State University. He holds an associate degree in fire science from Miramar Community College in San Diego and a certificate in fire protection administration from San Diego State, and he has attended hundreds of hours of seminar course work in fire protection.
Chief Gary has served in elected professional positions, including: President of the California League of Cities, Fire Chiefs Department and Chairperson of the San Diego County Paramedic Agencies. He has been involved in progressive responsibility for creating or implementing fire protection policy on the local, state, and national levels. He has served as a board member representing cities on the California Office of Emergency Services-FIRESCOPE Board and served two terms as the fire chief representative on the California League of Cities Board of Directors. Chief Gary served on the Livermore School District Board and served as an elected official on the City of Livermore City Council.
“I really want to express my appreciation for this work that’s been done in a collaborative way in which the study was put together. . . . I’ve seen a number of studies start in the fire department and this is the first one I can remember that has actually been fully completed and brought to the council, and it was done in a very thorough fashion. This is the best assemblage of comprehensive information about the fire department today, as well as what our needs might be in the future, that I have seen. So thanks to everyone. Thank you, Stewart, for giving us our money’s worth on our consultant contract with you.”
City Manager City of San Luis Obispo
“I am really, really impressed. I am impressed at the exhaustiveness of your study, impressed at the honesty and candor with which you expressed your findings; I am very impressed at the constructive tone of it, and that you came in under budget as well. So, thank you very much. I think that this document is going to be a cornerstone for us really moving forward for the next five, ten, twenty [years], half a century.”
Salt Lake City Council Meeting
“I wanted to offer my compliments to Citygate, to Mr. Gary for this very comprehensive report.”
San Luis Obispo Council Member
“I really, really enjoyed reading your Word product. I appreciate the fact that it was direct, it was constructive, and . . . it wasn’t finger-pointing, it was just . . . the facts. And I think that the money was well spent.”
Salt Lake City Council Meeting
“Thank you very much for a comprehensive report. Thank you.”
Palm Springs
“I was absolutely thrilled with the report because it was very comprehensive, very detailed. I call it the ‘time-in-motion study’ almost and some of the aspects [are] ‘how does your paper flow? How can you make your processes better? . . . As a government agency, how can we provide better service to the constituents?’ And to us we think that this study identifies those things down to all of the small paper processes and flows.”
Retired City Manager City of Vista, CA
“Thank you so much for this training. This was the best PIO training I’ve ever received.”
S-403 Information Officer class participant
“Thank you so much for all you have done. And it’s so comprehensive, I know it’s going to take a while for us to digest it all, but I think you’ve come up with some really good recommendations.”
Pro Tempore City of Vista, CA
“I think Citygate has done a great job. It seems like you’ve been most thorough and even-handed in your evaluations and you’ve given us certainly a lot of suggestions and guidelines to work with.”
City of Vista, CA
“I think this is one of the most comprehensive reports and I think probably one of the best presented reports I’ve seen in my years in government service. I want to start off by commending you for that and acknowledge that the work that you were able to do with cooperation from all of the different firefighting agencies in this region was second-to-none.”
Supervisor First District San Diego County