Straight Talk with Neysa Hinton

The Vice Mayor of the Sebastopol City Council, Neysa Hinton, speaks her mind even if it might not be completely politic to do so. She knows her own voice and it is a strong one. A working mother, who has worked in radio and now in an assisted living facility, she has juggled a career and her duties as an elected official. Neysa talks about growing up in Sebastopol but also in Jerome, Idaho where she got started in working in radio. She moved back to Sonoma County and continued to work in radio here and in San Francisco. In 2016, she ran for the City Council and was elected and she was re-elected in 2020. When she started out as a new city council member, she did not feel entirely welcome. She dealt with a pecking order established by more senior members who had many years of experience in local government. She acknowledges the learning curve that she had to go through, which will be much the same for the newly elected council members. She discusses the future of the Sebastopol Fire Department, a complex and contentious issue that will be decided by the new council following an outside consultant’s report. In addition, we talk about the City Manager retiring and how Sebastopol has been lucky to have its leadership serve for a long time. At an assisted living facility in Marin, Neysa had first-hand experience dealing with a vulnerable population during Covid. She reflects on some of what happened during Covid positively and negatively and she hopes that it made us more aware of our neighborhoods and our neighbors. Finally, she will not endorse any local candidate running for office but she hopes to welcome them and work with whomever is elected in November. Sebastopol Times is a reader-supported publication without advertising. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. Transcript This transcript was lightly edited. Dale: I'm joined today by Neysa Hinton who is the Vice Mayor of the Sebastopol City Council, one of two members of the council that will continue on into the next year. Welcome. Neysa: Good morning. Yeah. Here we are on a beautiful Tuesday morning at nine o'clock. And we have City Council tonight. Her Background Dale: I'd like to start just getting to know a little bit of your background. I think you grew up in the area. Neysa: I am actually fourth generation here. My mom graduated from Analy and I grew up outside city limits towards Freestone. My first K through second was at Harmony School District, and then we moved closer to Twin Hills School District. So I went to Twin Hills through seventh grade. After that we left the state for a number of years, and I lived in a variety of different states and went to a variety of different schools. I came back to Sebastopol. I went to Analy most of my junior year for just a semester and a quarter, and then I finished my senior year up in Jerome, Idaho. I went to junior college there at College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. And that's the start of what ended up being a 25 year media career. I started as a copywriter for the radio station and the female on-air voice. And during college I did AM news and overnights. So all total three and a half years. But I was missing California and as a young adult, I saw my life here. And so I moved back in 1985 and got a job at a local radio station and went to work in Sonoma County radio. And shortly thereafter, when I saved up enough money to put the deposit down, I moved to Sebastopol inside city limits, and I lived for many years over on Nelson Way in Sebastopol there across from like Burbank Heights. Dale: What did you learn and like about radio? Neysa: Like a lot of young people at that stage, it was really exciting once I got in. I was a huge radio listener as a teenager. I was one of the people that would call up and win the records. And I didn't really understand how it worked and I wouldn't have got the job had I not registered as a new student with my counselor and they had a posting of somebody that could type with good English grades for a copywriter. And frankly, I thought I was applying for a job at a newspaper. I always saw myself at that point being a school teacher. Probably English and and speech and debate. I was very involved in my speech team in my senior year in high school and competed on a circuit. So honestly, once I got in the radio station, I was just like: Wow, this is a really fun job. I worked for KSRO and KREO at the time and I became the first female local sales manager in Sonoma County radio. It didn't pay very much. I was broke all the time, and so I had to waitress to augment my love job, which a lot of people in the business do to get started. Then three and a half years in, I thought about other careers. I did actually apply to be an international stewardess at the time, crazy with Pan Am. But radio just kept popping up for me and I just ended up just staying in that career. And then in my mid twenties I converted to sales when I came to California because that was the job I could get. And then I just had some success at it. I worked really hard and in my mid twenties I was promoted by a new ownership group that came in. I worked for KSRO and KREO at the time and I became the first female local sales manager in Sonoma County radio. And that was a huge honor. Frankly, I left when I had my first child and she was born in 1993. I was a stay-at-home mom for one year and and did that and then went back to work for another radio group in Sonoma County where I was for another 12 years. So long runs with the radio groups. I'm a loyal person. I really like working with the team and once I get to know the team, I usually stick around. Dale: It was also an industry undergoing a lot of change during those years too, wasn't it? Neysa: So when I got here in 1985, the FCC rules changed and you could own an AM and an FM, and so that was the first consolidation. I went to work for little KREO and then we were bought by the old guard KSRO and we did a transfer in November of '85, and KSRO at the time was owned by Evert Person who owned the Press Democrat. So we had an owner that owned the newspaper in town, the oldest radio station KSRO in town, and then the number one top 40 FM. It was just a lot of change. You have to be flexible. You got new owners, he sold and then we were always moving. And at the end of the day, you put your head down and you do your job. . . Running for Office Dale: Do you remember when it occurred to you to run for office or when you started thinking about doing that? Neysa: I was raised to volunteer. My mother had us always involved in everything. We worked and we volunteered. That's just how I spent my childhood. I became a Rotarian, one of the first women in 1990 to be a Rotarian here in Sebastopol. I think we should celebrate everyone who puts their neck out there to run a campaign, because it is scary. And then I could do that and still work my job. And so I did that for 20 years. And in between all that while working, I was raising kids. So I was always like a team mom at baseball. I helped start the Farmers' Market in 1990 also. That's before I had children. So I was always involved and then I ended up taking a media job in San Francisco because the Press Democrat was once again selling. So I went to work for KGO in San Francisco. And so I was in the city trying to figure out, okay, can I stay in Sebastopol? I had to follow the job. That happens a lot in media. I had to quit Rotary, which was a hole in my life. I wasn't connected to my community. And then I got involved helping as a volunteer in the supervisor's race in 2016 and I learned a lot. I had never really been involved in politics. I walked houses. I hung signs, campaign signs. We did parades, which I was used to from radio, and then all of a sudden there were two open seats that July -- it became obvious that there were going to be two open seats. Two council members in Sebastopol were stepping down and I learned that the best time to run is when ther… Get full access to Sebastopol Times at www.sebastopoltimes.com/subscribe