Sebastopol City Council Election

[luke32]

With regard to the Sebastopol City Council election, does anyone have an insight as to why Diana Rich has been endorsed by current Council members Patrick Slayter, Una Glass and Sarah Gurney, and former Mayor/current Council member Neysa Hinton has not been endorsed by any of the three? (And Neysa has been endorsed by the Chair of the Sonoma County Democrats, Mike McGuire and Jared Huffman - while Diana has not? (( Lynda Hopkins has endorsed both))).

Is Neysa an independent voice on the Council?

[Barry]

...does anyone have an insight as to why Diana Rich has been endorsed by current Council members Patrick Slayter, Una Glass and Sarah Gurney, and former Mayor/current Council member Neysa Hinton has not been endorsed by any of the three?...

Thanks for bringing that to my/our attention, Luke! I also see that Evert Fernandez is also endorsed by Patrick, Una and Sarah, along with the Sierra Club, Sonoma County Conservations Action.

Here are each of the candidates websites:

• Evert Fernandez website
• Diana Rich website
• Neysa Hinton website
• Michael Carnacchi - He doesn't have a website - Here's his Facebook page
• Vaughn Richard Higginbotham - I don't see a website for him and his facebook page is not very informative.

[Barry]

The Sonoma West Times and News has published a Q&A with each of the candidates, except for Vaughan who did not reply to their questions.

Between Vaughan's failure to reply, or appear on the recent League of Women Voters Zoom Forum I don't consider him a serious candidate.

Here's are the candidates' Q&A with the Sonoma West:

• Evert Fernandez
• Diana Rich
• Neysa Hinton
• Michael Carnacchi

[Momof2]

With regard to the Sebastopol City Council election, does anyone have an insight as to why Diana Rich has been endorsed by current Council members Patrick Slayter, Una Glass and Sarah Gurney, and former Mayor/current Council member Neysa Hinton has not been endorsed by any of the three? (And Neysa has been endorsed by the Chair of the Sonoma County Democrats, Mike McGuire and Jared Huffman - while Diana has not? (( Lynda Hopkins has endorsed both))).

Is Neysa an independent voice on the Council?

Re: Neysa Hinton endorsements (As stated on website, https://www.electneysa.com/):

For transparency and impartiality in my decision-making capacity, I have chosen to not seek or endorse any Sebastopol council candidates or colleagues. This is not a new decision, but one I made several years ago and practiced in the previous Sebastopol city elections. I do not want endorsements to interfere with objective consideration of issues before the Sebastopol council.

[Barry]

Re: Neysa Hinton endorsements (As stated on website, https://www.electneysa.com/):
For transparency and impartiality in my decision-making capacity, I have chosen to not seek or endorse any Sebastopol council candidates or colleagues. ...

That's true, but she also published, apparently unsolicited, endorsements on her website, including

• Sonoma County Democratic Party
• Lynda Hopkins
• Jared Huffman
• Mike McGuire
• Mark Levine
• Caryl Hart
• Jim Corbett
• Efren Carrilo
• Ernie Carpenter

[KRF]

If I were one of the three establishment candidates seeking to continue my hold in position regarding the direction and leadership of the council, it would likely be in my interest to regularly oust first term candidates that don't paddle in the same direction.

[Barry]

Michael clearly paddles in his own unique direction, but I was surprised to see the 3 remaining council members not support Neysa. Care to highlight for us how she wasn't in sync with the other 3??

oust first term candidates that don't paddle in the same direction.

[KRF]

Michael clearly paddles in his own unique direction, but I was surprised to see the 3 remaining council members not support Neysa. Care to highlight for us how she wasn't in sync with the other 3??

I believe this has less to do with council member Hinton and more to do with the 3 establishment candidates maintaining status.
As you already suggested, I don't see much difference between many of the council. Can you recall the last time there was a 3-2 vote?

[Momof2]

Re: Neysa Hinton endorsements (As stated on website, https://www.electneysa.com/):
For transparency and impartiality in my decision-making capacity, I have chosen to not seek or endorse any Sebastopol council candidates or colleagues. This is not a new decision, but one I made several years ago and practiced in the previous Sebastopol city elections. I do not want endorsements to interfere with objective consideration of issues before the Sebastopol council.

[luke32]

Whether its honoring Neysa's choice or whatever, I think its good to have a competent, independent voice on the Council. A vote for Neysa alone is the best way to help get her a victory.

[rossmen]

Didn't rich get booted by the community center board? Or is that retirement from the chamber? She definitely has widespread support way beyond town. There is a cabal of three. And they are threatened by carnacchi, now neyisa. Rich is the vote for cabal.

[Barry]

Didn't rich get booted by the community center board? Or is that retirement from the chamber? She definitely has widespread support way beyond town. There is a cabal of three...

Diana Rich retired from the Community Center in 2017 on good terms:


Community center director retires, leaving behind a richer community

excerpt:

Gabrielle Disario, president of the center’s board, credited Rich with bringing many types of musical events to the center, expanding special interest classes and supervising multiple building renovations. During her tenure, new floors were installed in the main hall, the kitchen and restrooms were remodeled and new landscaping was developed outside the building.

It’s work that Rich is humble about, but also takes pride in accomplishing.

“It’s really been the effort of the community,” she said, adding that renovations would not have been possible without funding from community organizations like the Rotary clubs, business associations and the city council.

Disario said Rich’s leadership led to a better center in a better community.

“During her tenure, SCCC grew into a fiscally stable and reassured resource for all members of the west county community,” Disario said. “Diana’s commitment and energy combined with her organizational and problem solving skills helped the center thrive.”

She also brought many new events to the center, including the talent show and Tour D’Organics. Rich said the board of directors brought original ideas to the table and empowered her to execute them.

---

Also, regarding the remaining 3 incumbents, Patrick, Una, and Sarah, I have the highest for them! Yes, Sarah Gurney is something of institution in her own right, but I have always felt good about her open hearted and wise leadership that is supported by her many years of experience. Una is also very sharp and has great budgeting and financial skills. I've gotten to be a big supporter of Patrick as well, after starting off somewhat suspicious of his environmental awareness. He has proven to be solid and trusted leader with an impeccable environmental record, including being on the board of Sonoma Clean Power.

While I have no beef with Neysa, I am swayed by Patrick's, Una's and Sarah's endorsement of Diana (and Evert) over Neysa. While Neysa has said she did not seek their endorsement, that did not prevent them from endorsing her. She has posted several endorsements on her website (including Lynda Hopkins).

So Evert and Diana have my support!

[luke32]

Barry, your orange highlighting suggests that Neysa would have posted endorsements from the 3 Council members not facing reelection if she had received them - and that the three did not offer to endorse Neysa. Now that is the type of logic I would expect to see in the Trump campaign. I think you were driven by your desire to weight the scale in favor of Diana. A really sound analysis would say that Glass, Slayter and Gurney knew of Neysa's position (stated in writing) and therefore did not endorse her. Bad on you!

I think that the Council does a very nice job, except when their zealotry gets in the way of clear thinking. The major example I can think of is the rule banning further drive-thrus. That was clearly aimed, in a fit of pique, at CVS. Outcome: CVS got their store and the City got to add a quarter million dollars (or was it $350k?) to the lawyers' retirement account. If you are going to pick a fight, make sure you've got the advantage.

[John Eder]

I am supporting Evert Fernandez and Diana Rich for Sebastopol City Council. As a former council member, I find the notion that any members feel “threatened” by another member or opinion to be laughable. It is, as they say, a “three vote world” on the Council. If you can get agreement from two other members, the item is approved. There were a number of 3-2 votes during my tenure (approval of CVS settlement is one- Robert Jacob and I voted “no”), as well as 4-1 votes (I voted against adoption of a flawed General Plan update), so it is not always a monolithic voting bloc.

It is my understanding that Neysa voted to continue fireworks sales in Sebastopol, during times of historic fires. This irresponsible vote was enough for me to withhold support for her. She consistently voices the positions of the business community, in my opinion, to the exclusion of other needs or positions. An example of this was seen during the vote on the recently adopted Tobacco Retail License program, which seeks to reduce the rampant problem of teen vaping at Analy High School by outlawing the sales of all vaping products within the city limits. This ordinance was strongly supported by the administration of Analy. Neysa strenuously sought an exception to this ordinance for “The Green Zone” smoke shop on Main Street, citing damage to that specific business. In the end, she abstained from the vote, which is tantamount to a “no” vote in my view. This irresponsible position, again, was cause enough for me to withhold support.

Michael, while an interesting and entertaining council member, often seems to bring little constructive input to the subject. He has indicated to me on several occasions that he is disenchanted with being on the Council, going so far as to say, “...don’t vote for me.” His lack of a campaign is reflective of these feelings, in my opinion.

In the end, running for City Council is hard work. I pay attention to those that put in the time and effort to do that hard work.

[Laura Hagar Rush]

You can find interesting interviews with the candidates on the new Townsy Sebastopol web app at https://townsyapp.com/sebastopol-news/ (scroll down 'til you see their individual interviews). Evert's and Diana's are particularly interesting. (Note: I'm the founder of Townsy Sebastopol, the former editor of Sonoma West Times & News, and the author of these Q&As.)

[Laura Hagar Rush]

Things got hot at the Sebastopol City Council meeting when Michael Carnacchi introduced a broad platform of election reforms. Read about it on the new Sebastopol web app Townsy: https://townsyapp.com/news/sebastopol-election-reform/

[heresbruce]

I am not a resident in the city limits of Sebastopol, and no longer shop or visit there, but I applaud Micheal Carnacchi. I hope he gets the support he needs to prevail. I may yet return to visiting Sebastopol...

[Jim Wilson]

I also live outside of the Sebastopol city limits, but I work and shop in Sebastopol daily. Love the city. I think ranked choice voting is a good idea, for all elections.

[Laura Hagar Rush]

When I first started researching this story about political signage, I thought ‘This is kind of a dumb little story.’ (One of my sources thought the same and said so, lol.) But it turned out to be quite illuminating about the character of the local city council candidates.

https://townsyapp.com/news/signs-of-the-times/

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