Now that city-hood is out of the picture, the San Martin
Neighborhood Alliance plans to change its focus. The community
group will have a
”
brainstorming
”
session tonight to discuss the possible efforts, events, and
causes the nonprofit organization will take up, according to SMNA
member Sylvia Hamilton.
Now that city-hood is out of the picture, the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance plans to change its focus. The community group will have a “brainstorming” session tonight to discuss the possible efforts, events, and causes the nonprofit organization will take up, according to SMNA member Sylvia Hamilton.
“We’ll discuss the focus of the group and what the needs are. We’ll listen to all the different ideas and then prioritize what we could do that would have the most positive effect on the most people,” Hamilton said.
Since it was founded in 2000, the SMNA has hosted a variety of different events and supported a variety of local causes. Those include youth groups such as Scouts, the San Martin Animal Shelter, and beautification of public property. This summer’s San Martin Car Show, an annual event organized by the SMNA, raised money for the upcoming publication of a book about the history of the town of San Martin, and for the animal shelter.
Starting in 2003, the SMNA has focused its efforts primarily on an attempt to incorporate the town as a city so that residents would have a louder voice in land use decisions and the use of local tax revenues, Hamilton explained. Those efforts included raising money for the hefty fees that are required by the county for incorporation.
However, the push for incorporation stalled out with no definite plans for resumption earlier this year. The county’s Local Agency Formation Commission voted not to expend anymore funds or time on San Martin’s incorporation. The SMNA sued the LAFCO because a series of reports it compiled on the feasibility of city-hood relied on outdated financial data, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was settled in June, when the LAFCO agreed to waive more than $200,000 in fees it said the SMNA owed for staff work done on the incorporation, and the SMNA agreed to drop its claims of malfeasance on the part of LAFCO staff and abandon its incorporation effort.
Hamilton said no one associated with the SMNA or the town of San Martin has any formal plans to revive an incorporation effort, hence the desire to focus on other, more relevant causes.
The SMNA meeting will take place at 7 p.m. tonight at the San Martin Lions Club, at 12415 Murphy Ave.
