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Santiago Villa Neighborhood Association
Torrie and
Briggs
Bornmann
What is the SVNA ?
The Santiago Villa Neighborhood Association (SVNA) was started in 2015 as the Santiago Villa Residents Association (SVRA), a directory of our neighbors in the Santiago Villa mobile and manufactured home community in Mountain View.
In the spring of 2016, Barbara Davis, Trey Bornmann, and Bee Hanson began using the directory to organize a response to unexpected and unusually high space rent increases (between 5% and 10%), which were causing a serious hardship for many of our community's residents.
Trey had been involved in community organizing during Hurricane Katrina when he lived in New Orleans, and he applied his experience working with City government to help Santiago Villa residents challenge those unreasonable rent increases.
Trey served as President of the SVNA until he and his family moved to Virginia in 2021. His impact on our community is truly hard to overstate, and we're all grateful for his efforts. Thanks, Trey!
Trey Bornmann founded the SVNA in 2016 and then went on to establish the Mountain View Mobile Home Alliance (MVMHA) in 2017.
Our current President is Bee Hanson, one of the original founders of the SVRA, and steadfast recorder of all SVNA and Mountain View Mobile Home Association (MVMHA) activities. Bee has lived in the neighborhood since 1996, and is looking forward to many more years here.
How is SVNA Organized?
The five-member SVNA Board is elected annually. We have an "Election by Acclamation," if the officers run unopposed.
Our 2022-23 Board
President: Bee Hanson
Vice President: Leticia Jones
Treasurer: Randy Wise
Communications: John Waters
Guy Who Does Stuff: Alex Brown
Email: board@santiagovilla.org
SVNA's Nonprofit Status
In 2020, Trey Bornmann set up SVNA as a nonprofit [501 (c) (3)], which means our association is now a service organization. Trey also wrote the initial version of the association bylaws. You can read the latest update here.
Bee Hanson wrote the Letter of Certification that describes the SVNA's mission as a service organization, and Trey provided most of the legal documentation.
Soon, we will be able to solicit donations from organizations whose interests in North Bayshore coincide with our own. But that's something we won't be doing until we have a specific objective, and that might be far in the future.
Our Financial Status
In our first year, SVNA qualified to receive an annual neighborhood association support grant from the City of Mountain View in the amount of $1800. We used those funds to get our association started with a range of neighborhood activities. The annual support grant was increased the following year to $2000. Because of the impact on the City of the COVID-19 pandemic, the current grant is $1000 annually.
Our First Board, 2017: Tim Larson, Alex Brown, Barbara Davis, Bee Hanson, Stuart Esbit, Mariel Bolhouse, John Waters, and Trey Bornmann
What Does SVNA Do?
The mission of the Santiago Villa Neighborhood Association, as stated in our bylaws, is "to promote and advance neighborhood goals and to preserve and enhance the welfare of the neighborhood."
We spend a lot of time doing that at City Council and Rent Stabilization Board meetings, and occasionally
we deliver informative flyers.
We have also addressed things like neighborhood safety, including earthquake and fire preparedness and home security, but we need to revisit those efforts. Occasionally we organize presentations at our clubhouse from the Mountain View Fire and Police departments. And we bring in developers who explain their plans for North Bayshore.
Over the years, the SVNA Board has maintained good relationships with, and received support from, our neighbors in the North Bayshore neighborhood: Google, Microsoft, and the area's leading developer,
The Sobrato Organization. We
believe this is one of our most important responsibilities.
Annual BBQ
Before Covid, our most popular neighborhood activity was our summer barbecue. We held our first one at the clubhouse in 2018, and it was attended by more than 100 of our residents. Our second one was even more popular. The pandemic put a two-year hold on that annual event, but we hope fire up the grill again in 2023.
Meetings in the Clubhouse
Before the pandemic, we held neighborhood meetings in the clubhouse once a month. This year, some of our grant money went to a Zoom membership, so we can continue to have meetings online no matter what the Coronavirus does next. We'll meet in person soon, but we might also add virtual meetings from time to time.
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