Office of the Mayor

Mayor Vini Samuel came to Montesano in 1997 and has lived here ever since with her husband and son. Born in India, she came to Alaska with her family and earned her BA at Western Washington University before graduating from law school and coming to the Harbor. She grew up in Alaska and Montesano had many of the familiar hallmarks (endless evergreens, endless rain, and tightness of the community) that she had grown up knowing which made this town a perfect home away from home for her.

She owns a small business in town, served two terms on the city council (1999-2008), and has many involvements in the community including as a Rotarian, being active in the Montesano Church of God, as a former columnist for The Daily World, and serving on Western Washington Alumni board.

Mayor Samuel is the first woman elected mayor in Montesano’s history and the first Indian-American woman elected mayor in the United States.

As mayor, her focus is on balancing and developing economic development and protecting the unique, small-town feel of our little town. Her goals were when she started her tenure in 2016 to:

Revitalize downtown, work on our parks, fix roads and entrances into town, provide free Wi-Fi downtown, develop a tourism industry around hiking, fishing and biking and rebuilding community trust in city government.

Since that time, she has added the goal of ensuring the continued stability and economic good health of the future of Montesano.

She believes that in partnership with a great staff, great business district and school district and with the wonderful citizens of Montesano, she and the Council working together will make these things happen.