Veteran firefighter from the Bay Area will take the reins next month.
VISALIA -- A veteran firefighter from the San Francisco Bay Area will become the next chief of the Visalia Fire Department next month.
Mark Nelson, assistant fire chief in the Napa County city of American Canyon, starts his new job June 16. He succeeds interim chief Gregory Glass, appointed in October following the retirement of former Chief George Sandoval.
Nelson's hiring was announced Monday night by the Visalia City Council.
Nelson, 46, was tabbed by City Manager Steve Salomon from among 26 applicants. Eight finalists were interviewed, and Salomon's choice for the $125,300-a-year job was unanimously approved last month by the Visalia City Council.
"Visalia is a gem," Nelson said Monday. "I consider it an honor and a privilege to serve here."
Sandoval, 55, spent 33 years with the Visalia Fire Department, including his six-year stint as chief.
Nelson and his wife, Mary Kay, live in Modesto, but plan to relocate to Visalia in June. He has two daughters, ages 25 and 22, and two sons, ages 6 and 3.
Nelson said his first task in Visalia will be to get acquainted with the department's operations and structure.
"There are definitely different concerns for the Valley than for the Bay Area," he said. "I want to look around, evaluate things and establish credibility and trust with the firefighters, the administration and council, and with the community."
A native of San Jose, Nelson has an associate's degree in fire science from Mission College in Santa Clara and a bachelor of arts degree in organizational communication from California State University, Stanislaus.
His career began in 1983 as a firefighter with the South County Fire Authority in San Carlos. He moved on to the Modesto Fire Department in 1990, serving as an engineer and firefighter for 10 years.
Visalia represents a major leadership step for Nelson.
Between 2000 and 2005, he was a fire captain, training officer and battalion chief in Union City, an East Bay city of about 73,000.
From 2005 to 2007, he was the fire chief in the Solano County city of Rio Vista, where the population is about 8,000 with about 32 paid and volunteer firefighters.
In October 2007, he was hired as assistant chief in nearby American Canyon, a city of about 16,000 people north of Vallejo with about 40 firefighters, he said.
By contrast, Visalia's population is more than 121,000 and the department includes nearly 70 firefighters.
"I am confident Mark is going to do an outstanding job as chief and be the leader the department needs to continue their fine work," Salomon said in a statement Monday.
Nelson acknowledged the leap. "It will be an adjustment for me," he said, "but I do have the perspective of working in larger departments" like Modesto, with a staff of about 180.
The new chief inherits a department that is not only growing in the population and area served, but in available resources thanks to Measure T, a quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2004 to hire and equip new firefighters and develop new fire stations in northwest and southeast Visalia.
Nelson said such financial support is attractive after his experience in Rio Vista, where a troubled economy hit the city's budget hard and forced him to a more stable agency in American Canyon.
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