Former Index-Tribune publisher Bill Lynch named 2023 Alcalde of Sonoma

Former Index-Tribune editor and publisher Bill Lynch had covered many Sonoma City Council meetings over his decades at the paper, but for once last Wednesday, he became the news.

Lynch – a prolific writer, fisherman and former Sonoma Valley volunteer firefighter – was announced as the honorary position of Alcalde for Sonoma in 2023 by Mayor Sandra Lowe.

“I grew up with the idea, of course in the line of community journalists, the belief that people are most interested in themselves, their family and friends and their neighbors first,” Lynch said. “Service was what you did in a small community like this.”

Lynch sat nonchalant on a mid-19th century couch on Friday in his living room, with faded and brittle past editions of the Index-Tribune strewn across the coffee table.

He rifled through stories from days at the Index-Tribune like he was pounding away at a typewriter on deadline. Names of sources fly from his mouth carrying with them yarns about eavesdropping on the city council, a police chief hired over a lunch counter and the many young journalists who cut their teeth in the pages of the Index-Tribune during his tenure.

A new Alcalde

When Lowe called Lynch on Jan. 30, he initially thought it was to discuss plans for the Mission San Francisco Solano’s bicentennial anniversary.

“She says, ‘You are nominated to be Alcalde and we're going to vote on it …’ Now I'm thinking, ‘Wait a minute. You want me to be there? What if I lose the vote?’” Lynch joked.

When Lynch and his wife, Dotti, arrived at the city council meeting, it was packed with people, including past Alcaldes Steve Page and Karen Collins, along with many of Lynch’s longtime friends. The turnout was “overwhelming” for Lynch, who saw the ceremony as a tally of the friends he’d made over the years.

The city council voted unanimously in favor of recognizing him.

“I feel humble from all the people who came before me,” Lynch said, mentioning past Alcaldes, including his father Bob Lynch (1979), his “honorary” uncle Henri Maysonnaave (1977) and close family friend Jerry Casson (1978). “I can’t really say that I should stand next to them and feel like I’ve measured up. I’m very honored to be mentioned among them.”

After Lynch’s acceptance speech, Lowe gave permission for Lynch and his entourage to celebrate on the historic Sonoma Plaza.

“And so everybody that was there went down to the Swiss Hotel, which is, of course, the traditional local hangout … It just was such an incredibly warm feeling. You know, all these people, every one of them wrote a letter for me,” Lynch said with his voice filled with emotion.

Over the evening, the front room of “the Swiss” accumulated 30 to 40 supporters from the meeting, his beloved wife and friends who sought to pay their respects to the city’s newest Alcalde.

Sonoma’s first draft of history

Lynch’s home is like a living museum to the city of Sonoma, complete with a secretary cabinet from the Sonoma barracks sitting in the corner opposite a cobblestone fireplace with bricks from the streets of San Francisco, likely “mined from quarries in Sonoma,” Lynch said.

His family ran Sonoma’s paper of record for 128 years, with Lynch himself at the helm of the paper for more than 40 years. But Lynch’s legacy in the city of Sonoma began when he returned from serving in the Navy in Vietnam.

“My friend Al Mazza, who was the fire chief at the time, walked into my office and said, ‘Bill, I need you to be a volunteer fireman,’” Lynch said. “I said, ‘Al, I just got out of a war zone … I'm just not really interested in getting hot again.’”

But Mazza persisted, and Lynch joined the Sonoma Valley Fire Department, which was comprised mainly of volunteers like him.

“So for 12 years, I ran into burning buildings and burning roofs for the city of Sonoma and the city gave me this badge,” Lynch said, unzipping a pocket from his fly fishing sports vest and extracting a gold badge with the insignia of the city. “I think of all the services I ever performed for the city directly at least, that would have been one that somebody should have remembered.”

More often, however, Lynch’s impact within the city came from relationships, whether they were friendly and quarrelsome.

“I didn't always have friends in the city council. Matter of fact, there was always one or two people who probably didn't care for whatever I had said that was critical of the city council,” Lynch said.

While eavesdropping on a city council member in 1998, he heard about a development deal to build a resort on Schocken Hill. Lynch broke the story, and the public filled the council chambers at the subsequent council meeting in protest.

“I made a lot of enemies for reporting that,” Lynch said. “If the paper hadn’t covered it, we wouldn’t have a Schocken Hill.”

Sonoma resident Chad Overway nominated Lynch for Alcalde, however, because of his devotion to the city of Sonoma’s history and its residents living here today.

“He does many good works behind the scenes without looking for acknowledgment or recognition,” Overway said. “Consequently, naming Bill Lynch as the Alcalde would be overdue recognition for his many years of working selflessly for this community.”

But there will be something that feels wrong when Lynch reads an article about the newest Alcalde of Sonoma and it’s not under his byline.

“I still have the feeling, even to this day, that I should be writing the news,” Lynch said. “I took great pride in that because I was never afraid to stand up or to talk to people about what we did, because I thought we did a pretty damn good job.”

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.

Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified the “honorary uncle” of Lynch. The article has been updated to reflect his “honorary uncle” was Henri Maysonnaave.