Southern Marin fire agency race features crowded field – Marin Independent Journal

Southern Marin voters will have a packed November ballot to review when they decide who should lead their local fire department.

Four seats are open on the seven-member Southern Marin Fire Protection District board in the Nov. 3 election.

Kurt Chun, Cristine DeBerry, Peter Fleming and Thomas Perazzo are running for reelection. Candidates Thomas Clark, Eric Steinhofer and Amy Svendberg are vying for the same board seats.

The winners will govern fire services for more than 41,000 residents in a 25 square-mile area that includes Mill Valley, Sausalito, a part of Tiburon, Tamalpais Valley, Almonte, Homestead Valley, Alto, Strawberry, Fort Baker and the Marin Headlands. The fire agency has 90 full-time employees and five fire stations.

This month, the Southern Marin board hired a new fire chief, Heather Marques, the medical services chief for the Alameda County Fire Department. Her predecessor, Chris Tubbs, retired in July. Marques takes command on Oct. 13.

Steinhofer is an energy consultant who worked for companies such as Schneider Electric, Charles Schwab and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

“I’m running because I think our district needs someone who can bring financial, utility and energy expertise to wildfire readiness without asking residents for new taxes to get there,” the Mill Valley resident said.

Steinhofer said that he also served on the Marin County Bicycle Coalition board, which gave him leadership experience.

He said that wildfire readiness is his top priority for the Southern Marin district. He said the district should accelerate fire fuel breaks and vegetation management in neighborhoods and ensure that emergency access routes work.

Steinhofer also supports the undergrounding power lines in the district’s highest-risk areas.

Svendberg is a managing partner at the Poggio and Copita restaurants in Sausalito. She said that she has a collaborative, problem-solving mindset that unifies people.

“Running busy operations that serve thousands of people a week has taught me how to support teams, ask clear questions and stay focused on community needs,” Svendberg said.

She said that practical oversight is needed since a new fire chief will join the district.

“Community leaders encouraged me to run because recent changes in the district call for someone who knows the community well and brings a grounded, real world, and new perspective,” Svendberg said.

Chun, an incumbent who has served as a Southern Marin director for 35 years, emphasized the need for the district to have steady, informed leadership. He is a retired Berkeley fire captain.

Chun said his priority is a safer and “more disaster-resistive” district based on practical improvements, fiscal responsibility and consistent governance.

He seeks to improve wildfire mitigation programs and evacuation readiness as well as modernizing aging facilities and enabling emergency medical staff to meet demand.

Chun said he brings a “long-standing commitment” to Southern Marin.

Fellow incumbent DeBerry is a former deputy chief of staff to then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and also served as a chief of staff with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. Southern Marin directors appointed the Mill Valley resident to their board in 2019.

DeBerry points at the district’s accomplishments over the past six years including the district’s merger with the Mill Valley Fire Department.

“I also bring continuity and institutional memory,” DeBerry said. “I served as president and vice president during the merger and through the hiring of our current leadership team, and that history matters as the district heads into a fire chief transition.”

Fleming has served on the Southern Marin board for a decade. He said that he is the father of three children and he is focused on community safety.

“My long-term commitment to our community is rooted in a desire for us to be safer for each generation as a result of investing taxpayer dollars in the best services, equipment and leadership that our community deserves,” Fleming said.

He stated that he is a strong advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the district and he will continue focusing on hiring top talent.

“We have an opportunity to build one of the strongest departments and leadership teams in the country, but it will take significant effort to rebuild our leadership team,” Fleming said.

Perazzo is a retired safety and risk management consultant who has served as a Southern Marin director for nearly 15 years. He also served on the fire district’s finance and personnel committees.

Perazzo said the district’s new chief will need an experienced board.

“My time on the board will be of benefit to the new chief and our taxpayers,” he said.

Clark could not be reached for comment on his campaign.

The Marin Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 1775, which includes Southern Marin firefighters, is not endorsing incumbents this year. The union is instead backing Steinhofer and Svendberg.

IAFF 1775 recently raised concerns over how the district recruited a new chief in a process they deemed to be unfair and led to finalists who had conflicts with labor organizations.

Marques is involved in a lawsuit against two executives of the Alameda County Firefighters Local 55 for alleged mistreatment.

She said one executive secretly recorded her conversation with a firefighter she was investigating for alleged misconduct, while another tried to get her fired with a censure motion accusing her of defamatory remarks about the other officer and the firefighter under investigation.

Local 1775 President John Bagala said that Southern Marin directors allowed the district to spend more than $1 million on legal and outside services, including $447,904 for labor negotiations, in the 2025-26 fiscal year.

He said the incumbents helped create an “unbelievable mess” for the district.

“The old saying, ‘The same people who created this mess cannot be trusted to get you out of it’ seems applicable,” Bagala said.