Mathew Rush served three decades with the Austin Fire Department. He is an innovative and accomplished public safety professional with experience spanning a wide range of disciplines including strategic planning, program development, and exercise execution with demonstrated leadership skills in crew resource management, analytics, and critical thinking. Over the course of his career, he implemented numerous policy, operational, and equipment programs for the department and championed multiple cross-disciplinary public safety initiatives through direct involvement and advocacy with the Austin City Council, mayor’s office, and the Public Safety Commission. At the time of his retirement, Mr. Rush had contributed subject matter expertise across a 12-discipline response model, annual budget and grant procurement allocation, and training curriculum planning and implementation for the AFD Special Operations Division.
Mr. Rush was the architect of the AFD role within the Department of Homeland Security Fusion Center network and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). He served as the fire service liaison to the DHS primary and recognized fusion centers and was chosen to lead the department’s inter-service collaboration with other local, state, and federal homeland security agencies. Mr. Rush was a principal creator in the formation of the Fire Ground Officer Course, a program focused on team development, engagement, critical thinking, and leadership skills. He also pioneered the creation of the Active Threat Workgroup, a multidisciplinary public safety agency workgroup dedicated to preparing agencies and city government officials to resolve incidents involving complex coordinated threats.
Mr. Rush is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Terrorism and Homeland Security Committee, holds a master’s degree in security studies from the United States Naval Postgraduate School, and is a two-time recipient of the AFD Medal of Valor.
“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
“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 am very much appreciative of Citygate’s comprehensive view of all the issues. And you have been very candid and very forthright in the problem areas that you have identified and we appreciate that. Quite often sometimes people choose to gloss over those issues and therefore we never can get a real good handle on the problem to resolve it. And I very much appreciate your insight and your intuitive natures that you have all experienced in your government services and trying to identify where our problem areas are so we can identify for the public. I very much appreciate the idea and the comments that you made that we are talking about the citizens who come to the planning Department as customers. And so you’ve done a great service for us and we are certainly appreciative of all your efforts.”
Commissioner Jackson County
“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
“[Stu Gary’s] knowledge, expertise, and demeanor were invaluable in our efforts to ferret out a fair agreement with the City. I could go on and on about Stu, but you already know all of the superlatives.”
AAE, General Manager Monterey Regional Airport
