Neysa Hinton is running for her third term on the Sebastopol City Council

She's running as a hometown girl with years of institutional knowledge

Councilmember Neysa Hinton is running for her third term on the council. (Photo courtesy of Neysa Hinton)

Councilmember Neysa Hinton is running for re-election to the city council this November. She was first elected in 2016. Her time on the council has been full of challenges—flood, fire, COVID, and now the city’s financial crisis.

Hinton grew up in Sebastopol and attended Harmony Union School in Occidental, Twin Hills and Analy High School. She went to college in Idaho. She sees herself as a hometown girl with years of institutional knowledge about the council. Unlike many councilmembers, she has worked fulltime the whole time she’s been in office—primarily as the director of a senior living facility in Marin. She spent much of her early career in radio marketing.

There are two open seats on the council and three candidates: Hinton and two newcomers to Sebastopol politics, Phill Carter and Kee Nethery. Hinton is hoping to parlay her years of experience on the council into a third term.

The Sebastopol Times sat down with Hinton on a sunny Saturday morning to talk about her years on the council and what, if she’s re-elected, she’d like to do next as a councilmember.

What are the three most important challenges facing the city, and how would you resolve them?

Number one, we’re in a fiscal emergency. We were projected at a $1.67 million deficit and going to run out of reserves, and then we started making cuts to non-essential items. We have a lot more work to do. I feel like I have not finished the work on the council. That’s why I’m running for a third term, bottom line. Hopefully we’re going to get our sales tax measure, which I’m fully supporting, to pass.

We are also moving, as long as everything goes well, to a successful Fire Department consolidation—for which the technical term is reorganization, by the way—with neighboring Gold Ridge Fire District. It makes a lot of sense since they’re right next door, and they frequently come and support us and we support them.

Another important issue is that we’ve got to grow our tax base, so we’re working on that—both with a possible new hotel in town, though we know a lot of things have gotten stalled out, due to the pandemic and high interest rates. I have also been supportive of the Chamber of Commerce and the possible merger with the Sebastopol Downtown Association to help consolidate our organizational efforts, enhancing the outreach and support for local businesses.

I have the institutional knowledge and stability that I bring to the council. Unless you’re a council watcher, I don’t think people realize how many department heads have changed since 2022. Retirements and changes in our department heads have included the city manager, the city attorney, public works director, the fire department chief, the police chief—and our current mayor, my colleague Diana Rich, is not running for a second term. So that means that four city council members will be new—because we had three new ones in 2022 and now Diana is leaving—which leaves me as the longest-serving council member on council that has that institutional knowledge.

Finally, at the end of the day, I think I represent a lot of Sebastopol citizens and their views. People tell me that. I listen to them, and I always take the phone calls. I speak to groups that invite me. I never say no to any organization that wants to meet with me, whether for an endorsement or for a get-to-know-you coffee meeting—I always say yes.

[Editor’s note: In the next section, Hinton talks about endorsement interviews. Organizations like the Democratic Party, the Sierra Club, Sebastopol Tomorrow, etc. ask candidates who want their endorsement to fill out a long questionnaire and sit for an interview with the group.]

For the endorsement interviews, even if you don’t exactly line up with them, as an elected official I think people should know what you stand for. Some people approach endorsement interviews differently. They will say, ‘I’m not going to complete the questionnaire because I don’t think your organization aligns with my views.’ I approach it this way: I fill out the questionnaire based on my views, and they either like it or they don’t, and then I show up for the interview, and I either get the endorsement or I don’t.

Speaking of endorsements, I’m just going to go ahead and put this on the record—I don't endorse sitting council members or anybody that I'm running against that could be sitting at the dais. I’ve accepted Diana Rich's endorsement because she will not be running this term.

Evert Fernandez, who I ran against four years ago and almost lost to, is my treasurer for my current campaign. I think it’s really important that we all are friendly, and I try to work closely with my colleagues. It helps us get a lot more done to benefit the Sebastopol community.

You’ve also made a real effort to reach out to local officials beyond Sebastopol. Tell me about that.

I think that it’s really important, once you’re in office, not just to be focused on Sebastopol. A lot of people don’t understand that when they first run for office, that we’re part of a bigger thing—we’re part of the county. The county oversees some of our money, as we know when we had the cyber loss, right? So for example, councilmembers serve on regional boards, which are really important for us, like the Russian River Watershed, which helps with our required permitting.

As I recall, you made some changes as to how council members got appointed to boards and committees like that.

I did. When I was a new councilmember, there were councilmembers that had sat on certain regional committees for years—one for 13 years, another for 10 years, and none of us, as new councilmembers, got a shot at that committee. There was a belief on the part of some that ‘Well, I understand this. I’m an expert. I have longevity. I’m moving through the chairs—the vice chair, the chair position, etc.’ I think there’s an argument for that, but I always felt stifled myself because I didn’t get a chance after serving on some of my committees to expand my knowledge and serve on other committees.

So when I was mayor and the new council members were coming in, I started a new system that let everybody kind of pitch for their committee in a public way, and so they submitted what they really wanted. Some cities have the mayor just assign people to committees, and it can be very political—but that wasn’t my intent at all. My intent was, Where does your interest lie, and how can we as a group in a collaborative way, try to get everybody where they want to be? Because you’re going to be much more engaged and want to attend the meetings and participate if it’s something you wanted, not something you got plugged into, right? So I convinced the council to let me try it, and almost everybody got everything they wanted. I really wanted to be on one committee (the paired committees of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority/Regional Climate Protection Authority), but I kind of just let everybody else have their preference.

Why did you want to be on that committee?

I’ve had an interest in transportation ever since I got elected. A lot of the reason, I think, is because I’ve been commuting to Marin County for the last 12 years. The original board I wanted to get on was SMART, but I found out by legislative order, we cannot be on the SMART board. Sebastopol and Sonoma are excluded because we’re not on the 101 corridor. That was the thinking. But we also pay sales tax, so I would argue that’s taxation without representation. I’ve talked to Chris Rogers and Mike McGuire about it. It would need to be changed in Sacramento. I really don’t agree with that philosophy, because ultimately we want SMART to come out our way.

I believe that’s why I also did not get appointed to the MTC (Metropolitan Transportation Committee) by the Board of Supervisors, which I went for four years ago. I was not a sitting member of the SCTA—so I didn’t have that experience—and then, because Sebastopol wasn’t on the corridor. My argument was we (West County) have more road miles than any other district in Sonoma County. So I really want to be on that board. I took an attempt at it twice, but a Santa Rosa city council member and a Rohnert Park city council member sat on it.

Do you have any other changes you would like to make to the council itself, or do you think it’s running pretty well?

I mean, I think it’s running pretty well. I would be possibly interested in how Santa Rosa does it—where the mayor stays in two years, and the Vice Mayor changes out annually. I find that when you first get on the council, it is a lot of work. I mean, I didn’t realize that. I was told, but I was like, ‘I’ve lived here my whole life, I have lots of experience in business, how tough could it be?’ But there are nuances. And once you’re on the council, it is your part-time job that you spend, maybe, 20 hours a week if you’re reading everything, if you’re participating in regional boards and being an active member.

I mean, like Mariah (of the Chamber) just texted me yesterday, ‘Are you still in town? We have a ribbon cutting,’ right? You know, so it takes a lot of time. And then, just like any job you do over time, you get better at it.

But I’ve always been a volunteer. I grew up volunteering. Anybody who looks at my resume can see 21 years as a Rotarian—council work kind of replaced my Rotary service—starting the farm market, being involved in the Sebastopol Downtown Association back in the day. I actively raised two children so then we were involved in Little League and field trips and Girl Scouts, and, you know, all the things that kids did.

My work with the council kind of replaces the hole for me that was left once the kids left the nest, and it’s a way to be involved in the community and give back. I feel like I was always one of those joiner people that needs to be involved.

In the time you’ve been on the council, what are the things that you’ve achieved that you’re most proud of?

My most proud, shining moment was when disaster hit. I was mayor in 2019 with the flood. I was starting what would be my third year, and when it started to be clear it was going to flood, we started pulling the trailers out of Park Village. Although we knew it was going to flood, I don’t think anybody knew how bad that flood was going to get and how far it was going to come up. I remember driving down there and looking at the water. I’ve lived in Sebastopol a long time so I remember floods, and obviously remember Russian River floods, but for that flood water to rise and for all that damage to happen, I got a real quick education about FEMA—like all of the sudden I’m walking the Barlow as the mayor with FEMA.

All of a sudden I kicked into high gear. I attended Lynda Hopkins’ big come-together at the grade school in Forestville with resources that the county put together, and then we put together a mini version of that for Sebastopol residents and merchants. I got to know the Economic Development Board of Sonoma County people really well ... I already had a strong relationship with both Jared Huffman and Assemblyman Mark Levine —at that time, we were in Levine’s district—and then Mark was able to get us the $1.5 million relief money. I feel like I helped with that effort as mayor during that period.”

I also have a strong relationship with Linda Hopkins. She’s one of my endorsers. How have we got county money that we never got in the past? You’re having a relationship with your elected, and you’ve got to learn where to ask. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. I think that’s an in life thing.

So that would be my most proud moment.

Following that was the fire, which happened in the same year and there was the city-wide evacuation. I think that’s the only city-wide evacuation Sebastopol ever had. I was down at the fire department almost daily.

So in my eight years, those were the big things: two big disasters that were in the same year, and I happened to be the mayor.

And then there was COVID. Patrick Slater was the mayor during COVID—and if you believe that everything works out for a reason, I mean, I run assisted livings for the elderly. I was not in city leadership at that level, as mayor or vice mayor during COVID, and thank gosh, because, as I remind people, I was at the assisted living, doing my job, taking care of seniors and trying to keep COVID out of the building.

I ran for election in 2020 and I almost lost that election to Everett Fernandez. He lost by just 55 votes. When I look back on it, in hindsight, I was so inundated with my job making sure that the seniors were protected during the COVID pandemic. 2020 was just like, COVID, COVID, COVID. And then, oh, when we thought we were coming out of COVID, then COVID hit in the fall wave. COVID just went on and on.

So, it works out the way it’s meant to, I guess.

So I have a question about the financial problem that Sebastopol is in. I think a lot of people have the question: How did this happen? What are your thoughts?

I sat on the Budget Committee, mostly with Una Glass, prior to Diana wanting to get on, and we knew there was a lot of one-time money drop ins, and we said, there’s a structural deficit—we said it.

But we were also told that we really needed to keep our reserves within a certain range. Una and I started recommending to move out some of our reserves into a separate vehicle reserve. We were starting to try to do that so our general fund reserve would stay in the range we were told it was supposed to stay.

So we were trying to set the budget up for the future by doing some of that, but we also had so much new money drop in. I mean, the flood relief, the $1.5 million was brand new money that we had to spend on dedicated things related to flood protection. So we could spend it on our storm drains and that sort of stuff. So that was one-time new money that we spent on the community center and different things.

So I’ve since asked, why wasn’t the city recommending we put more into reserves or paying down our pension liability? Because at the end of the day, people like to point at the council, but we have a 50-person professional staff in City Hall. Council is not supposed to be micromanaging, that is not our job. Our job is to make policy, and then we are advised by the people that are getting paid, whose job it is to give us recommendations, that then we vote on.

Well, so there was a lot of one-time money coming in, and we were keeping our reserves in what we thought was like a healthy area, right? At least, that’s what I perceived.

I haven’t sat on the Budget Committee for the last two or three years. And it’s in the last two or three years, where all of a sudden people are like, ‘Oh no, there’s a real problem.’ But I’ll just say, I’m going back to my time in that window, and it was not perceived to be a problem.

I mean, we were doing our report outs, and we were like ‘Our reserves are in good shape.’ We were putting money every year towards the CalPERS pension liability. I was a big supporter of that. Always voted for it, I always recommended it. I think we did it every year, at least we did when I was on budget committee, in different amounts—sometimes it was a million, sometimes it was $300,000. We were putting money away for a future fire truck. We were moving money into these reserves to keep our reserve level in the range it needed to be in for city government. It’s supposed to be 20%, but it could go down to 15%. At the time, I think we had a reserve of 28% or 30%, and then it was even higher, like 38%, and we moved stuff into reserves and paid off some CalPERS liability. It was in a healthy range.

I took office in 2017. So we were in a healthy range my whole first term. So that would be ’17 through ’20, and then I believe even ’21 we were in really good shape. That might have been my last year on the budget committee. And all of a sudden, yeah, it just turned.

And let’s not ignore COVID. I mean, a business I planned to open on Main Street still has not opened because COVID hit, right? So, I think COVID changed the trajectory for business. Especially for local small businesses. For our hotel. For the Livery. Then all of a sudden, we had high interest rates. Who can predict the economy?

So same question with water and sewer. What do you think happened there?

Well, my understanding is we have been kicking the can down the road and not hiring a consultant to do an official cost allocation study for 20 years. They cost about, I think we capped it at $90,000. Okay, so we were estimating internally. You cannot make money in that fund.

We did a rate study, I think it was 2019, and it recommended raising rates. I remember when I came to council, and we had senior citizens in front of us, and local merchants that said ‘Our rates can’t go up that much.’ Based on recommendations, we should have gone higher, but we didn’t.

Without going back to the minutes, I know we didn’t raise everything as much as was recommended. I don’t think we raised the commercial hauler water rate, because the feeling was, there are people that need potable water in West County whose wells are dry. So we didn’t raise the rates as much as was being recommended, and so we gave relief again.

Now we’ve got problems with our Well 6. I just got an email about a storm drain that needs to be cleaned, and the amount was just outrageous. You just can’t even imagine what it involves to clean a storm drain, what with permitting and rules and all that. But anyway, it costs a lot of money to do all that.

You’ve been supporting a rise in the sales tax for a couple of years now. Give me your best argument for people who are like, ‘I don’t want to raise the sales tax.’

One, it’s just 50 cents on $100. Two, it helps collect from the 40,000 people that live right outside town, that drive through our town every day using our roads and services, but their money is going to the county, and we’re not seeing that money come back to us.

The sales tax is the most fair tax, in my opinion, to fund what we need. What we’re going to use it for is still to be determined on a future council agenda item, but I would expect that a large percentage of that is going to go to infrastructure and services in town. Also I was an advocate of putting an end date on it, so we put a 12-year sunset clause and then it would have to be extended by the voters.

This is a bridge to funding what the city needs today, while business can get caught up. With a possible one or two additional hotels and property taxes improving overall, my hope is that it’s a bridge that we need for the next 12 years to shore up the city which needs a sustainable source of funds, which this is.

It can’t be all put on property owners through a parcel tax. That was our other option.

And frankly, I mean, it’s really hard to do these three-two votes, because I don’t want to vote for tax increases either. I don’t want to pay more. I’m hoping to start to retire in the next few years. But what choice do we have? My home is the biggest investment I own, right? I need water and sewer. Yeah, I just don’t see another choice.

And I think that that comes to why am I running for office again. I mean, you can judge me by my votes. You can judge me by what I’ve said on the dais.

When you’re new—and I welcome new council members, but new council members can say what they’re gonna do—and then you sit up there, and you’re faced with all these reports and all these facts. And it goes back to why I launched the sales tax measure last summer, and I was called “unstrategic.” And I’m like, I was more strategic, sorry, than the rest of you.

Any final thoughts?

I guess I would just say I’m not a one-issue candidate. I feel like people have voted for me in the past because, well, it’s hard to follow what’s going on with the council, and they trust my instincts. They know me. They know how I vote, and I feel like my voting record shows what I stand for.

I don’t just make votes for my personal interests or beliefs. I make votes for the whole community. We all have our favorite pet projects, but I try to go back to what I hear the public saying and not try to push my own personal agenda. I think I’ve shown that time and time again on the dais. So yeah, I try to listen to everybody, and then make a vote for the community.