[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 187 (Thursday, November 21, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     IN HONOR OF JOHN HEALY, RETIRING FIRE CHIEF OF THE SAN MATEO 
                      CONSOLIDATED FIRE DEPARTMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 21, 2019

  Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, at the end of this year, John Healy will 
officially step down as the Fire Chief of the Consolidated Fire 
Department of San Mateo. He leaves big shoes to fill, and they've grown 
larger over the course of his 36 year career in the fire service.
  John started as a volunteer firefighter at age 19 in 1986 with the 
Foster City Fire Department. He quickly turned professional as he 
joined the Hillsborough Fire Department the following year. Ten years 
later he was a Captain. In 2000, he crossed the bay to serve Union 
City, and in 2003 he returned to his hometown of San Mateo where he 
remained for the next sixteen and a half years.
  Between the days of his teens in the 1980's until the end of his 
career, his hometown of San Mateo grew from a quiet suburb of about 
77,000 to over 105,000. Growth like this presents any fire department 
with numerous challenges. An entirely new neighborhood at Bay Meadows 
emerged. On the east side, a shopping center and office developments 
demanded resources. Complex traffic patterns and tens of thousands of 
additional vehicle trips on freeways lacing the city prompted increased 
numbers of serious medical calls every year. The list goes on.
  Importantly, over the decades the financing of public services became 
more difficult as salaries and pensions escalated steeply. When he 
returned to San Mateo as a Captain in 2003, John Healy faced a 
community different in many ways from the one in which he grew up. 
However, San Mateo remained a town that valued its public safety 
services. This was vividly illustrated in 2008 when the economy went 
into a steep recession and newly-elevated Deputy Fire Chief Healy 
assumed responsibility to enter into a shared services agreement. By 
2015, Belmont, San Mateo and Foster City were ready to enter into an 
agreement to formally create a new and combined department. It wasn't 
easy.
  Now Fire Chief Healy negotiated new labor MOUSs with three cities, 
jumped through flaming hoops of pension contracts, axed through 
byzantine State governance laws, and delivered the equivalent of a new 
baby in the form of a charter amendment authorizing the new agency. By 
January of this year, the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department was up 
and running with a new governing board, an improved cost structure, and 
superior service. Chief Healy deserves the thanks of 168,000 residents 
in the communities that he serves.
  During his career, Chief Healy served with the San Mateo County 
Operations Group and Communications Committee and built strong 
relationships with the county public safety dispatchers and management. 
He noted in a recent news article that, ``Wearing the uniform and the 
badge was the greatest honor and it's difficult for words to fully 
express what that means to me.''
  John Healy holds a Bachelor's in Fire Administration and Fire 
Prevention Technology from Cogswell Polytechnical College and earned 
certification as Chief Officer, CICCS Strike Team Leader, Fire 
Investigator I, Safety Officer and Division Group Supervisor. Chief 
Healy was aided greatly in his career by his family, notably his wife, 
Stacey. The couple have three sons. Two attend Sera High School. One is 
in college.
  John Healy grew up in San Mateo with seven siblings and knows his 
hometown's history like he knows his own. Ask him whatever happened to 
the Borel estate and he'll probably tell you about the development of 
Borel Square and offices in its vicinity. That new library on 3rd 
Avenue? He'll describe its predecessor, and perhaps he even visited 
once or twice in his youth. Old St. Matthew's Church in downtown San 
Mateo? A beautiful brick building, but probably not the place a 
firefighter would want you to be in an earthquake. How many Fire Chiefs 
can claim to have responded to their first fire call in town by riding 
a bicycle? I don't know for sure if John Healy is one of them, but it's 
likely.
  Today, let's give thanks for the humor and good nature of a San Mateo 
favorite son. With honor and great distinction, John Healy is leaving. 
We look forward to seeing him in Central Park during the Christmas 
holidays, perhaps skating at the annual ice rink, and hopefully 
avoiding a fire service call for a medical emergency.

                          ____________________