Chief Mazza retired as the Fire Chief for the City of Monterey, California, where he engineered and facilitated the consolidation of the Monterey and Pacific Grove fire departments in 2008. His fire service career spans 38 years with city, county, special district, and state fire agencies and includes administration, operations, air operations, training, dispatch, disaster planning and management, fire prevention, and law enforcement experience. He served as the Incident Commander on a statewide Incident Management Team and continues to serve as a member of the Monterey County Emergency Operations Center staff. Chief Mazza holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Fresno, and an associate degree in Fire Science from Fresno City College, and he is a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer Program.
Chief Mazza has extensive collaborative experience, having served elected and appointed positions in numerous professional organizations and on regional committees and initiatives. He has served as the Fire and Rescue Coordinator and chaired the California Incident Command Certification System Peer Review Committee for the California Emergency Management Agency Monterey County Operational Area, and he also served on the Monterey County Operational Area Grant Approval Authority for the California Department of Homeland Security. He has served as President of the Monterey County Fire Chiefs Association and represented county fire agencies on committees providing governance and policy oversight of the Monterey County voice and data emergency communications and dispatch systems. He obtained grant funding and facilitated implementation of a mobile data communications system for Monterey County fire agencies in 2010 and initiated and led the continuing effort to develop a regional shared governance fire agency for the Monterey Peninsula.
“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