After serving as the state Senate’s ex-officio member for years, Michal J. Machado was appointed executive director in 2010. He retired in July 2013.
He was born in Stockton, California, in 1948, earned a degree in economics from Stanford University in 1970 and then took a master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of California, Davis. He served in the U.S. Navy and deployed to Vietnam. In 1988, he attended the Harvard Agribusiness School in London.
Machado taught at Delta Community College for two years, and also worked for his family’s business, P and M Farms as a vice president and general manager, starting in 1976. He served on the board of a major food processor in California, and worked for the Agency for International Development in Eastern Europe and Russia, an organization that assisted farmers in their transition to an open market economy. He was also elected to the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, and was president of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau.
Machado, a Democrat, was elected to the Assembly in 1994. Within two years, he was the target of a Republican-led recall, officially because he voted for Willie Brown as Speaker despite promising to remain an “independent voice.” The recall failed, and after Machado termed out in the Assembly he was elected to the state Senate in 2000. In different sessions he chaired the committee on Banking, Finance and Insurance, and the budget subcommittee on State Administration, General Government, Judicial and Transportation, and the committee on Revenue and Taxation. In addition, Machado was on the committees on Budget and Fiscal Review, Local Government, and Natural Resources and Water.
In the Legislature, he represented San Joaquin, Yolo, Solano, and parts of Sacramento counties, and served on water committees and co-authored water-related legislation, including a $1.97 billion water bond, approved by the voters in 2000 as Proposition 13, the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection, and Flood Protection Bond Act. He was also involved in passage of Proposition 50—the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002.
Machado has been active on several boards and committees, including the Linden Unified School District Site Council, local Rotary and Lions clubs, and the American Legion. He also was the vice chair of the board of directors of Tri-Valley Growers, and a member of the North Delta Conservancy and the People’s Organization for Land Preservation.
After leaving the Legislature, Machado joined Sacramento Advocates, a lobbying group for businesses, charities and trade associations, as a strategic consultant. He also served as a member of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, and was a Community Outreach Organizer and Federal Prison Healthcare Receiver.
Machado is married to Diana; the couple has a son and daughter, Erahm and Melissa. Their son Chris died in a farm accident in 1998. In addition to his career of public service, Machado now owns and operates a farm in Linden, California, that has been in his family for three generations.
Machado Named New Director of Delta Protection Commission (by Lisa Lien-Mager, Association of California Water Agencies)
Mike Machado Recall California (1995) (Ballotpedia.org)
Biographical Profile for Michael J. “Mike” Machado (Vote CA)
Senator Michael J. Machado, Retired (Sacramento Advocates)
