Homeowner groups give a jump-start in city politics

Associations often serve as a springboard for local residents

By Gretchen Knaup

Neighborhood associations of Sunnyvale serve more than their own neighborhoods. For many, they also act as a springboard for larger scale involvement within the city.

Currently there are eight different neighborhood associations in Sunnyvale, all with their own geographic borders, character and style. With city council elections coming in November, campaigns are already under way.

As collective voices, neighborhood associations often recruit and encourage their own board members to run, and this year is no different. At the Heritage Neighborhood Association's meeting on June 27, the board made it a point to nominate people from their association to run for city council.

"We are not prepping anyone right now, but we will have some people in a couple of years," said John Mayor, president of Lakewood's Association. Mayor also serves on the Housing and Human Services Commission.

"Neighborhood Associations are great for someone who wants to get involved with city politics," Mayor said. "It's a good place to start--in their own neighborhood,"

He added the Lakewood Association frequently interacts with the city. Heritage Association is different, operating as a grass roots organization, meaning that city officials only get involved by personal choice.

Vice Mayor Fred Fowler was formerly president of the Lakewood Village Neighborhood Association, which includes 1,600 homes. He is running for mayor in this year's election in November.

"Being the president of a neighborhood association you deal with issues within your neighborhood that the elected officials handle on a whole," Fowler said. "You also learn how government mechanisms work."

According to Fowler, many city officials got their start in neighborhood associations. Sunnyvale Mayor Jack Walker was formerly the president of the Raynor Park Neighborhood Association and Elaine Rowan, member of the housing human services board, is the president of the Snail Neighborhood Association.

"Lakewood has produced a number of people, including Jessica Lee who was former president of our association and is now president of the school board," Fowler added. "Sunnyvale is very lucky to have these associations and we need more of them."

On endorsing candidates for city council, Fowler said it depends on how the association is structured. It can either be informally structured or be an official nonprofit organization. Most are informal because nonprofits can not endorse candidates. Fowler said Lakewood considered going non-profit, but they didn't like the political boundaries. Most associations are very poorly funded, and although they lack the funds to financially back their candidates, they definitely give support.

Victory Village Neighborhood Association, whose geographic location forms a square inside the bordering streets of Fair Oaks Avenue, Kifer Road, Central Expressway and Bartlett Avenue, is one of the smaller organizations with 150 houses. President Bob Greene started the association because he saw a need for it in his community, but he said their were speculations as to his political agenda.

"People think that I did it because I wanted to get politically involved, but I don't want to run for city council," he said.

With the associations having this political affiliation, people who are ambitious about politics tend to start at the neighborhood level and work from there. For example, Susan Liu who serves as the treasurer for Victory Village, participated in Leadership Sunnyvale to broaden her horizons and further enhance her leadership skills. According to Greene, Liu's involvement in Leadership worked positively for the association in that it brought attention to the association's elections.

According to the community development department and neighborhood preservation, the city supports Sunnyvale residents in forming or revitalizing existing neighborhood associations throughout different areas of the city. In the past couple of years, six single-family associations have been formed and three multi-unit apartment complex areas have worked with the city for the overall improvement of their properties. For more information about forming a neighborhood association call the Sunnyvale Neighborhood Preservation Office at 408.730.7610.

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