Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue Board of Commissioners
Lawrence G. Schear
Secretary/Treasurer Commissioner
Board of Fire Commissioners
Indian Shores – Seat 1
Term Ends: 11/2024
Following a long and successful career in Aerospace Engineering (Systems, Communications, Manufacturing, and management for both large and small companies), Larry and his wife Diantha retired to the Suncoast in Indian Shores near family (2 children and their families including 4 grandkids, and a sister-in-law and her family) and new friends.
Larry continues a long history of voluntary community service with some Indian Shores’ appointed boards learning first hand our local political and geographic infrastructure and issues. When an opening appeared on the PSFRD Board, his mayor suggested that he might be interested in contributing more actively there by filling the open term. He was subsequently elected in November, 2010, to the Board.
Larry’s outside activities include motorsports (Tampa Bay British Car Club and Sun Coast Jaguar Club), computers and electronics, travel, reading, our Space Program, outdoor sports, Boy Scouts, and military history and preparedness. He was instrumental in the selections of the new Fire Chief and the Indian Rocks Beach Commissioner.
Elizabeth (Betsey) McKenna
Vice Chair Commissioner
Board of Fire Commissioners
Indian Rocks Beach - Seat 2
Term Ends: 11/2026
David D. Gardella
Commissioner
Board of Fire Commissioners
Belleair Beach and Belleair Shore – Seat 3
Term Ends: 11/2026
lifelong beach area resident, David has been a real estate broker since 1982 and specializes in the marketing and selling of luxury waterfront and resort properties in the beach and mainland communities of Pinellas County. In his 30-year career, he consistently ranks among the top sales agents in his market.
After twenty years with the Coldwell Banker organization, David opened his own real estate office in 2005; and in 2010, David joined Premier Sotheby’s International Realty.
In addition to his real estate career, David also owns and operates apartment rentals in Indian Rocks Beach and Belleair Bluffs.
Heather Fleming Koskinas
Louis R. Snelling IV
Chair Commissioner
Board of Fire Commissioners
Mainland – Seat 5
Term Ends: 11/2024
Commissioner Louis R. Snelling IV was appointed to the Board of Fire Commissioners upon the retirement of James C. Terry in December of 2015, and was elected in November 2016 for a four-year term and has been subsequently re-elected since then.
Lou grew up on Indian Rocks Beach and graduated from Seminole High School in 1966. In 1968, he entered the United States Navy and was attached to Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One, stationed in the Far East in Japan and Vietnam. In 1972, he married the former Barbara A. McMullen, of Clearwater, and the two were married until her passing in 2004. He has two sons, Lou and Ryan, as well as five grandchildren.
His 44-year fire service career as a volunteer firefighter began with the Indian Rocks Volunteer Fire Department. In 1973, he was hired by the City of Largo Fire Department as a Firefighter/EMT, and then hired as a Firefighter/Paramedic with the Indian Rocks Special Fire Control District in 1978. In 1980, he was hired by Seminole Fire Department as a Firefighter/Paramedic, where he served as a Lieutenant Paramedic, Captain, and EMS Coordinator. He was later brought on in 1996 with the Dunedin Fire Department to coordinate the set-up of EMS for the department. As Division Chief of EMS and Logistics, he served for 20 years, retiring in 2016.
Commissioner Snelling graduated from the St. Petersburg College EMS Paramedic program and maintained Florida State license and Pinellas County certified Paramedic status for 38 years. He was also a State of Florida certified Firefighter, Fire Officer, Fire Instructor, and Live Fire Trainer.