What happened at the Sebastopol City Council Candidate Forum

City council candidates fleshed out their positions in this calm and civilized forum

The candidates are Stanton Key Nethery (top left); Neysa Hinton (top right); Phill Carter (bottom center); and League of Women Voters moderator Pamela Stevens (bottom right).

The League of Women Voters Sebastopol City Council Candidate Forum on Wednesday night started off with moderator, Pamela Stevens, laying down the ground rules. The three candidates—incumbent Neysa Hinton, Phill Carter and Stanton Key Nethery—were given one minute for opening statements. After that, Stevens asked the three candidates a series of questions—most penned by members of the audience. Candidates had 90 seconds to answer each question. The debate was an hour and a half.

Over the course of the forum, Hinton’s years of experience and solid grasp of the issues was on full display—in comparison to Carter and Nethery, whose answers were looser and more theoretical (if intriguing). The problem for Hinton is that her tenure on the council—including a long stint on the budget committee—covers the same period of time that Sebastopol’s budget troubles grew and metastasized.

For the last 15 years, Sebastopol was governed by council members who served multiple terms over many years. That is no longer the case. Three continuing council members (Maurer, McLewis and Zollman) have just two years of experience. Sebastopol voters will have to decide how important experience and institutional memory is on a council that is still relatively new. Will voters want to keep one veteran member of the council for continuity or will they want to start over with two newcomers?

In this article, I will briefly summarize the candidate’s answers, but we will also be making a full transcript (more than 12,000 words) available for those who’d like to read all of the candidates’ answers in their own words.

You can watch a recording of the League of Women Voters’ candidate forum here. (This is well-worth your time.)

Opening remarks

KEY NETHERY: I’ve lived here in Sebastopol for about 13 years, and I’ve been in the Library Advisory Board capacity for several years. Several people said I should run for city council. I finally got convinced, and basically my two things that I’m most concerned about are I want to make sure that that the city doesn’t run out of money, and I want to make sure that the city doesn’t run out of water. That’s pretty much it. My background is as an entrepreneur and CEO, that kind of stuff, but I’m retired at the moment.

NEYSA HINTON: My name is Neysa Hinton, and I’m a fourth generation Sonoma County resident, who’s currently serving my eighth year on your Sebastopol City Council. I’ve served as mayor twice and vice mayor twice. I returned to Sebastopol after college to raise my children, who both attended Sebastopol public schools from kindergarten through high school graduation. I’m running for my third term to continue to provide leadership and institutional knowledge of our city council as we move through these challenging times that we’re finding ourselves faced with. By now, many people know me—where I stand and why—but for those that do not, the most important goals I want to focus on, to just name a few, are our serious budget shortfalls and growing our tax base long term. I’ve been a working mother my entire life. I bring business skills and knowledge to our small city in my role as a member of the city council, and I ask for your support for re-election.

PHILL CARTER: My name is Phill Carter, and I’ve been a part of the Climate Action Committee now for two years, slowly getting more and more involved with the city’s business and finding more and more about what can be improved. As I started out in the transportation area and trying to figure out our needs to improve downtown, make it a more bikeable city, I discovered other issues that are interrelated. As the environment and economics are intertwined, I hope to be able to improve both at the same time. I don’t think environmentalism and business improvement are mutually exclusive. I have two kids, and I’m a board member of the Wesco Soccer Club. I’m also interested in making sure that this town is financially viable for the next 50 years. Also our water. I have many, many years of business experience to sympathize with our downtown owners. And I’m from a small town, so I seriously respect the small town vibe.

What do you see as the most critical issue facing Sebastopol?

All three candidates agreed that solving the city’s financial crisis was the most important issue. For Nethery, it was the only issue he mentioned in response to this question. “The fact that we’re running at a deficit—that has a huge impact on anything and everything that we do going forward,” he said. In addition to the budget crisis, Hinton mentioned two other important issues—water and sewer rates and fire department consolidation. Carter went into a complicated description of how he’d approach Sebastopol’s economic woes via economic development through beautification, events, hotels, traffic management and affordable housing.

What are your thoughts on the proposal to build the Gravenstein Commons supportive housing development on the former AmeriGas site on Highway 116?

All three candidates supported the development of Gravenstein Commons, a supportive housing development for formerly homeless individuals on the former site of the HorizonShine RV Village. Both Carter and Nethery gave a nod to precedent, noting that the past and current city councils had struggled mightily over this issue and finally come to the decision to go forward. Neysa Hinton, who has been a stalwart believer in this project from the beginning, said, “This is a simple one for me because I made the vote on it. I made multiple votes sitting on city council, and in the final vote, when we brought it back for reconsideration, I continued to support this project. St. Vincent de Paul got a $6.5 million state project grant, and [had we not voted for it] we would have been walking away from that money for permanent supportive housing in our community.” She noted that HorizonShine was always meant to be temporary and that some of the former residents, who are currently living in RVs on 116, might be placed permanently in Gravenstein Commons.

Ensuring community voices are heard and decisions are made transparently is essential for trust in local government. How would you improve public engagement and transparency in the city’s decision-making process?

Nethery opened by saying that as a member of the Library Advisory Board, he was familiar with the rules of the Brown Act, which governs public meetings in California, and while he felt it was constraining, he didn’t see a way around it. Carter said “I am curious about how we can use technology to make the available data and options available beforehand, so that the citizens are prepared as well as we [the council] are in live council member meetings.” Hinton gave a full-throated defense of the council’s transparency. “Well, I think Sebastopol does an exceptional job in this area. First of all, I think we’re the last city—and that includes when you take into consideration the Board of Supervisors—that allows live Zoom comments in a gallery format for a city council meeting. We have had a few meetings that we’ve been Zoom bombed with a lot of negativity, but the council has addressed this twice and consistently has voted to have live Zoom participants.” She also noted that the “public has the ability to submit a longer comment to us all, and our city clerk, Mary, forwards those as soon as the comment comes in.” Hinton also said that her cell phone number is publicly available. “People can call me at any time,” she said.

What is your plan to help support small local businesses?

Hinton expressed support for the merger of the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Association, and mentioned that the city will be expanding the planning director role to include economic development. She also mentioned that chain stores aren’t allowed downtown and urged listeners to shop local. Carter suggested helping businesses with fixed costs like water and electricity—though he wasn’t sure how to do this. He also wanted to see the city marketed more successfully. “We can do so much with just a little amount of money to market the town a whole lot more and get a unified voice, a unified character and a unified brand,” he said. Nethery noted that all small businesses are struggling in the “Age of Amazon,” and said he was very pleased to hear that the city was bringing on an economic development person who could “search out businesses that can survive and would do well in Sebastopol.”

How will you support rank and file staff?

Both Carter and Nethery referenced a discussion from the previous council meeting about assuring pay parity between new and existing employees. Nethery warned against micromanaging. Hinton noted that dealing with staff was really the purview of the city manager. “As city council members, we’re here to set policy, not get involved in the day to day jobs of, well, we have about 50 employees on staff with the city.”

How will you work with council members and city staff to address the city’s projected budget deficit?

Nethery started off with a “follow the money” riff and said he’d work with the city manager, but then finished like this: “You know, there’s just a whole bunch of expertise out there that needs to be consulted to figure out, like, what are we doing and how can we change, and how can we continue going forward.” Carter praised the council for working together “politely” to solve the budget deficit. He promised to work with the council but to do his own homework on the budget problem. “My vision is to create a more vibrant town to grow our way out of this,” he said.

Hinton explained how the process actually works: “So currently the system is that the city manager brings forth the budget to the council. We have a process that we have a subcommittee of two council members that work on the details and what we always call the deep dive into the budget. I’ve served on that for five years out of my eight. I have not served on it in the last two years.”

The problem is this means she served on the budget committee at the very time when the budget was going south. She noted that this year, “We did take a $1.6 million budget deficit of two budgets ago to a $600,000 approximate general fund deficit this time. So a lot of things have been cut. I believe we have been doing that in the current council as much as we can, but we haven’t been able to cut as fast as our spending is rolling the other way.”

What are your thoughts on the council’s decision to reduce the city’s funding to the Sebastopol community cultural center?

Hinton laid out the council’s approach to funding the Community Cultural Center. “You can’t take a nonprofit that’s already struggling and take them from a high level of support that we’ve given them for many years and reduce it to zero and expect them to be able to keep operating,” she said. “The city does not have a Parks and Recreation Department as many bigger cities do that support these sorts of things, like our senior center, like our pool, like our Sebastopol Community Center. So we rely on nonprofits in the city, as we have for a long time, to help us provide these kinds of extra services that enhance all of our lives.” Nethery and Carter agreed that the council had probably done the right thing in reducing funding to the center while not zeroing it out.

At a recent meeting, the city council members received a report on the possibility of creating an enhanced infrastructure financing district (EIFD). What are your thoughts on this?

It was clear from Carter’s response that he did not understand what an EIFD was and how it worked—something he admitted at the end of his attempted explanation. Nethery actually understood what an EIFD was and how it worked, but seemed to think it related solely to the Sebastopol Library and its need for a new building. Hinton’s explanation of the process was tortured and hard to follow, though she did explain that the county was paying $60,000 to a consultant to do a study on whether the EIFD would work in Sebastopol and that the results of that study were not yet in. All seemed to agree with Nethery’s summary: “It’s complicated, but it’s a good thing.”

What are your thoughts on the possibility of the city contracting for its public safety services to the sheriff’s office?

All the candidates expressed a preference for a local police force, but said they were open to the idea of farming police services out to the Sheriff’s Department if it would save money. “All options are always open, especially when we have this fiscal crisis,” Hinton said. “So I would be open as well to hearing, I guess, if it would save us money. Bottom line.”

What are your thoughts on the proposed Sebastopol and Barlow hotel projects?

All three candidates expressed enthusiastic support for both the Sebastopol Hotel, which has been in the works since 2016, and the newly proposed Barlow Hotel. “I think it’s important. I’m for hotels,” Carter said, noting he hoped they’d help collaborate on marketing the city. Nethery echoed this sentiment, mentioning what a boon the hotels would be for local businesses. “Considering our financial situation, I believe that two hotels make sense,” Hinton agreed.

The City Council is responsible for the water and sewer operations in the city of Sebastopol. Finances, water quality and infrastructure needs have not been easily available to rate payers. What would you do to better inform water rate payers concerning the finances and the state of our water and sewer infrastructure?

Nethery agreed with the substance of this question, calling water and sewer “a black box” that concerned him. Carter said he’d like to see an itemized breakdown of expenses for water and sewer and a plan going forward. “One thing that I know is we're going to have water issues going forward for the next 50 years,” he said. “I want to make sure that whatever we put this new revenue to isn’t just a bandaid event, but it is proactively building something that will last us for the next 30 years.” Hinton, for her part, said the entire council was taken aback by the most recent rate study, on which recent steep water and sewer rate hikes were based. “That was a tough vote,” she said. “We tried to be as transparent as possible. We reported out the information as we received it—reliable information. And we will continue to try to do that in full transparency to the rate payers the best we can.”

The last Homeless Point in Time Count documents 118 homeless individuals in Sebastopol. What would you do to reduce the number of homeless people so that Sebastopol has one per every 1,000 residents, similar to Windsor. In addition, what are the plans for having RVs removed from city streets and finding housing for the people in them?

Hinton challenged the accuracy of the Point in Time Count, noting that sweeps in Santa Rosa sometimes move people into the Sebastopol area, but that they don’t necessarily stay here. Carter agreed that number seemed high. He was also concerned with protecting small businesses from the homeless. “How can we organize county services and don’t absorb so many problems from the exterior economy for a small city that doesn’t have enough room to absorb that impact. When the homeless also come with other problems such as drug use or panhandling in front of businesses, where businesses suffer, it creates a downward spiral that we don’t need.” He said he also wanted to deal with the issue in a compassionate way. Nethery admitted that he didn’t have the “silver bullet answer” to the issue of homelessness. He mentioned that other states are trying a “housing first” approach: “They tend to basically just put the homeless into housing and they start there, and then they work with them to get the services that they need,” he said. I’m not sure that we have the resources to do that.”

How will you collaborate with our fifth district supervisor to bring funds to Sebastopol, which serves as a west county service center. Besides funds, how else will you collaborate with the county?

Hinton got to brag here about her countywide (and statewide) connections which she has assiduously cultivated. She reminded listeners of her close relationship with Lynda Hopkins and the $1.5 million in flood relief the city got from Mark Levine. Nethery and Carter’s points on this topic were more theoretical. Nethery mentioned the EIFD again and the library’s role in helping the homeless (not sure how this connected with the question). Carter at least seemed to know the numerous county and regional boards that city council members sit on, and said he would turn to Hopkins not just for money but for advice on “unique and creative ways” of solving the city’s problems.

What ideas do you have to fix the traffic problem in the city, as well as the downtown parking issues?

Nethery dove into a discussion of roads (for high speeds), streets (for strolling) and stroads (the worst of both worlds). “A ‘stroad’ is kind of like South Main, where we’ve got stores that we want people to visit, but we also have cars zooming through the town as fast as possible to get from one side of town to the other side of town,’ he said. “The concept was, if you’re going to do anything to change traffic, you want to get rid of stroads, and you want to make something either a road or a street.” Hinton mentioned that the city had recently won a Caltrans grant to reimagine downtown and that she was looking forward to seeing what they came up with. She also said, “I don’t think parking is an issue in Sebastopol,” noting that Sebastopol offers free parking.

Carter was visibly excited to be talking about transportation. “This is one of the reasons why I’m here tonight,” he said. “I started out in the Climate Action Committee, on the Transportation Committee, trying to think about how to make it [Sebastopol] more bikeable,” he said. Referencing the “stroad” problem, he said, “We’re going to have two more developments that are going in up the road, and we need to reimagine the town. I’m actively involved with it … How can we get traffic to slow down so that our downtown stores don’t suffer, but we can maintain the level of flow that we need so it doesn’t just disrupt traffic.”

Affordable housing is a priority to residents. What is your position on the city’s policies on short term rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO.

Hinton responded to this question by saying it was a done deal. “We’re not allowing any additional ones, and we’re collecting the TOT taxes from the ones that exist. I think that decision was made a long time ago. You can have a hosted Airbnb, meaning you live in the house or on the property in your own home. ADUs cannot be short-term rentals.” Carter spoke to the first part of the question, supporting infill development. Nethery also supported infill development and suggested that the city could create more housing by letting some commercial buildings be turned into housing.

Closing Statements

PHILL CARTER: I’m running for council because I want to reimagine the downtown, to make it vibrant, to make it beautiful, to think about growing the downtown through festivals and a clean downtown, using resources that we have to market it a little bit better, become a little bit more business friendly, but not ruin the vibe of a small town. That said, I want to work on transportation and infill and affordable housing, without reducing the safety of our area, making sure that our businesses are not only able to receive walkable traffic, but also not having a problem with the unhoused. And then I also need to do a lot of work and struggle with our long-term RV parking. I know that that’s a terrible issue, and will take quite a bit of work. More or less, I hope to add a positive vibe with team spirit, so that the council can get things done and move us forward as fast as possible, so that we can get out of the budget issues, making sure that we keep our eye on the ball and complete transparency.

KEY NETHERY: Yeah, so the my two main issues are budget—we can’t spend more than we bring in—and water. I want to make sure that we have enough water to last us. My wife and I moved here, and we intend to live here the rest of our lives. We’d like for the place to be viable for that. We have rental property, and so I’ve got a lot of expertise and experience in housing, and I’m definitely interested in seeing what kind of possibilities there are. So, yeah, I’m interested in jumping in and seeing what I can do to make this place get back on track.

NEYSA HINTON: So for the last eight years on the Sebastopol City Council, I’ve demonstrated a commitment to Sebastopol values and utilize my knowledge of the issues that we’re facing, applied my experience to finding solutions for tough challenges. I support and practice open government, inclusion of all budget solutions and infrastructure investments, and provide steady leadership while keeping community goals in the forefront. But honestly now, a lot of people know me, and where I stand and why. You’ve seen my decisions, and while I listen to others and the whole community, I do not hesitate to express the position I feel is best for our community. It’s been an honor, frankly, and a privilege to serve for the last eight years on our Sebastopol City Council. And with your support, I hope to continue to serve you in a third term, so that we can continue to build a thriving Sebastopol and solve our many challenges.