VOTE MATT SAMSON for MARIN WATER
As a Fire Chief, I keep communities safe and prepared for emergencies. On your Water Board, I advanced historic investments in our water supply infrastructure, addressed significant budget challenges to set the district on a healthy financial path, and accelerated wildfire risk mitigation efforts on watershed lands.
With your vote, I will continue to work to increase our water supply’s reliability, affordability and environmental sustainability.
– Matt Samson
With your vote, Matt will continue to:
Invest
Continue to invest millions of revenue dollars back into system to increase reliability, and improve our water supply & distribution.
Mitigate
Further reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire by hardening district infrastructure & accelerate landscape scale vegetation management.
Restore
Expand ongoing efforts to restore Lagunitas Creek and protect watershed lands and habitats.
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Support Matt Samson
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Matt's First Term Accomplishments
- Placed the district on a healthy and sustainable financial path by addressing significant budget issues.
- Reinvested tens of millions of revenue dollars back into improving our water distribution system to increased reliability.
- Funded the largest increase in the district’s capital infrastructure program, ensuring the district can keep maintaining its mission into the future.
- Approved the District’s most significant water supply project since the mid-1980s and funded numerous improvements that are resulting in tangible water supply improvements.
- Accelerated wildfire risk mitigation efforts on watershed lands including the largest number of acres for prescribed fire in two decades.
- Assessed all water district infrastructure for wildfire risk and completed a work plan to address identified vulnerabilities.
- Supported district efforts through the Lagunitas Creel Technical Advisory committee to continue the critical restoration work needed in Lagunitas Creek to increase salmon and steelhead populations.
- Focused science-based studies on watershed lands that experienced fuel reduction/mitigation efforts to identify impacts on native bird species.
- Participated in the Tomales Bay Foundation with a focus on Nicassio and Walker Creeks.
- Participated on the North Bay Watershed Association with a focus on regional health and sustainability of our north bay watersheds.
We support Matt Samson for Marin water board!
- California State Assemblymember Damon Connolly
- Marin County Supervisor Brian Colbert
- Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan
- Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Molton-Peters
- Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni
- Marin County Supervisor Mary Sackett
- Marin Water Board President Jed Smith
- Marin Water Bandmember Ranjiv Khush
- Marin Water Bandmember Dianna Maier
- Corte Madera Councilmember Eli Beckman
- San Rafael City Councilmember Rachel Kertz
- Southern Marin Fire Protection District Board of Director Kurt Chun
- Marin County Supervisor Katie Rice (Former)
- Monty Schmitt – MMWD Board of Directors (Former)
- Sausalito Councilmember Janelle Kellman (Former)
About Matt
Matt Samson is a San Rafael resident living in Terra Linda where he and his wife are raising their two daughters. He moved to Marin in 1989 and grew up in the Contempo Marin neighborhood where his parents still live. Matt attended Miller Creek Middle School and Terra Linda High School before going to UC Santa Barbara where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography. While at UCSB, he was a member of the men’s varsity water polo team.
Matt has spent 27 years in emergency services beginning in Santa Barbara and continuing as a firefighter with the Marinwood Fire Department and now South San Francisco. Matt has completed the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program where he earned the Manno Award for outstanding research on emerging fire services issues.
Matt currently serves as the Fire Chief for the South San Francisco Fire Department in San Mateo County where he enhances local emergency response through regional partnerships and he has recently concentrated these efforts on wildfire response in the urban interface by improving evacuation planning and management. He focuses on collaboration between government agencies and understands the connection between wildfire and water regarding environmental changes experienced over the past decade.
In addition to his fire chief role, Matt has been a fire academy instructor with the City College of San Francisco for over 13 years, and he continues to develop course curriculum and presentations for the California Office of the Fire Marshal – State Fire Training.
Matt was elected to the Marin Water’s Board of Directors in 2022 and during his first term he has focused on financial health of the district, reducing risk from wildfire across the watershed, and improving the district’s water supply.
Outside of the fire service and public service, Matt enjoys exploring Marin County with his family and friends. The remainder of his time is spent trying to keep up with his young daughters.
Paid for by Re-Elect Samson for Water Board 2026 ID #1484685