đź’ˇA Message in the Mess?

If the message is messy, it’s because the HOA made it that way. I was fined nearly $10,000 by Ocean Beach HOA—for chalk messages, flyers, and QR codes about HOA governance while piles of clutter and broken shelfs in walkways is tolerated. Even actual hazards and nuisances, like urine in elevators has appeared to linger and be ignored.

This is about power, not tape.
This is about control, not chalk.

Even if you disagree with my message, you should be alarmed that the HOA spent ten thousand in an apparent attempt to silence it instead of addressing what I am told are serious safety and maintenance issues.

So why the nearly $10,000 fine?
What exactly was “damaged”—besides the board’s ego?

Certainly not the HOA’s ability to host pizza parties or duct-tape notices to walls.

How It Started

For years, I tried traditional communication: emails, formal requests, and respectful engagement.

**Ignored.****Dismissed.**Stonewalled.

So when flyers, QR codes, and chalk finally got a response—it wasn’t a conversation. It was a crackdown. They removed our fliers. Then they removed our entire bulletin boards.

I only had simple requests. In 2022, for example, I requested financial records. To date, they still have not provided them. In 2025, a building key and parking sticker. After 6 months an attorney informed me where the HOA “hid them” for me.

It Begins

  • Flyers were torn down, defaced, or yanked minutes after posting.

  • Bulletin boards were removed without explanation.

  • Fines issued for notices I didn’t even post.

So I adjusted:
âś… QR codes under glass tables (no adhesives)
✅ Flyers placed exactly like others’ notices
âś… Non-damaging adhesives used after others were removed
✅ Chalk on walkways—washable, non-damaging, and not mentioned in the rules.

Visual Evidence Speaks Louder Than Lies

This section includes visual evidence. In many cases, there are before and after photos of content placement and removal. You may click on each photo to view a caption with additional context. You may click on each video to play that video, all of these videos have sound. Some of these videos and photos may contain disturbing content.

Ongoing in-person confrontations I perceived as harassment, toward me and my child:

This woman was captured on video making what I perceived as verbal taunts. In my view, these statements match the wording on my defaced fliers.

Manager appearing to refuse my violation reports:

The on-site property manager is filmed on video appearing to dismiss me, repeatedly walking away and cutting me off, as I perceived it. He deflects by saying the complaint should be in writing (despite it already being in writing, in my view). This is the communication circus I experience.

As he repeatedly dismisses me, I gently insist he takes the violation report. Appeared evasive to me.

Flyers defaced, sometimes with written taunts:

QR codes erased but not the clutter:

Board members eradicating messages:

Board members repeatedly caught on video washing chalk on public sidewalks.

The gardening committee conducting censorship:

The gardening committee is caught in lies about hose access while washing chalk on public sidewalks.

They back-track, only after I gently push back.

Does the gardening committee usually water the sidewalks near the bulletin boards (and entire front property line)?

Manager spraying chalk

If the gardening committee already watered the bulletin board, why is the on-site manager on video doing it again right afterwards?

Coordinated Scrubbing

Despite this new volunteer censorship, in the past they hired large cleaning crews to scrub with small brushes, why? To generate a massive bill-back to me?

Actual issues ignored

The photos below of ignored elevator urine and clutter suggest selective enforcement, expose retaliatory motives, and show the HOA could be taking actions that have the effect of tolerating things as extreme as actual biohazards all while cracking down on protected forms of communication.

Chalk smeared by (board member), publicly mocked protected speech, reinforcing a pattern of retaliatory behavior.:

Partial Erasures, Conducted By Board Member:

Comparative Content Erasures

 These visuals, of massive furniture, commercial signage, and actual nuisances left untouched, while tiny expressive non-commercial content is clearly and obsessively censored. Its humiliating when you finally see it. It’s hard to justify.

  • Flyers removed, taunted, defaced

  • Bulletin boards dismantled

  • Small flyers = fines, but massive furniture = untouched

  • Urine in elevators left for days

  • (board member) smearing chalk or others pressure washing it, even beyond the physical property boundary, using our HOA dues

  • (board member) repeatedly using profanity and removing fliers, witnesses that saw her do it, and videos of her agents doing her bidding.

  • Eyewitness testimony of ongoing repeated removal of flyers by the on-site manager, on HOA time, including ones off of the property

  • Chalk = “urgent damage,” but actual hazards = not a priority

  • Content critical of the board gets scrubbed, and other content is left untouched

  • Running for the board flier = not allowed? Organ harvesting flier = Allowed?

It seemed they eliminated every alternative. No adhesives. No setting it there. No chalk. How else could I communicate, when all forms of communication are banned?

I had an idea! What if I attached my messages to the “items” that were tolerated under the rules? What was the board going to do, ban the free sharing tables (again?) to restrict my speech? Surely not. This entire saga is largely about me publicly documenting the fact they tried that once. I began claiming your items, adding my expressions, and recirculating them, all within the rules:

If these are not nuisances:

  • Broken shelves

  • Orphaned couches

  • Oceans of dog urine

  • Chalk smeared out of spite, as I perceived it

  • Board members with off leash pit-bulls in common areas

Then why are we wasting nearly $10,000 (or more in legal fees) on erasing my message?

Nearly $10,000 paid in protest

After I was billed nearly $10,000 for the “damages”, I paid it in protest, so they can’t disqualify me by saying I am “delinquent”.

Not because I am emotionally invested in becoming a board member. Not because I did anything wrong. Not because these fines are legal. Because I am heartbroken to think they could do this to you next. Because I am emotionally invested in your ability to say you disagree with me.

Let’s be clear: sidewalk chalk is not damaging. It washes off in seconds.

After I took video of (board member) washing it off, she called the cops on me. However public photography is not a crime.

I’m sure you agree, even if you don’t like the chalk. You don’t have to like it; I don’t like it either.

Let’s Be Clear

  • Sidewalk chalk is not vandalism.

  • Flyers are not property damage.

  • Civil Code §4515 protects expressive content in HOA communities.

  • Our own Bylaws (Section 8.2 – Limitations on Powers of the Board) prohibit political actions and off-site nuisance abatement.

So why the nearly $10,000 fine?
What exactly was “damaged”—besides the board’s ego?

Certainly not the HOA’s ability to host pizza parties or duct-tape notices to walls.

My “asks” are simple and reasonable

  • Designate an area for expressive content that we all have access to.

  • Stop allowing board members to involve police over public photography.

  • Stop wasting tens of thousands of HOA dues on a dispute with a single resident.

  • Stop modifying common area elements and blaming it on me publicly.

Rules for You, Not for Us

The board:

  • Posts their own signs on walls with ambiguous unrecorded rules that contradict our real rules — using tape, or thumbtacks.

  • Installs & removes bulletin boards without advance notice, with retroactive and speculative reasoning provided, without updating rules to clarify where we may post fliers.

  • Enforces against chalk, even outside the physical property boundary, when chalk isn’t mentioned in the rules.

  • Appears to be focused on obsessively removing my communication over things like urine pictured in the elevator.

All while:

  • Ignoring requests from 2022

  • Threatening residents instead of addressing complaints

What I Perceived as Coordinated Behavior

When someone caught on video repeatedly makes statements like:

“We’re going to have you arrested."
"We’re going to find a way to stop you.”

Who is “we”?

If not the board, how would they know enforcement plans, in my view?
If they are the board, why would they be coordinating outside of meetings?

That one word — “we” — may be, in my opinion, the most legally revealing part of this whole saga.

It appears to me to imply collusion.

It seems to me to suggest retaliation.

And the HOA — in my view, they now own this mess, which may include Civil Rights Violations (under §4515, §52.1, Ralph Act, Bane Act, anti-SLAPP, and others)

“Board members are not shielded when they act outside their authority or in bad faith. These actions expose not just the HOA, but individuals to personal legal and financial consequences.”

Even if the HOA claims they’re not responsible for other residents’ behavior, this kind of language, in my view, appears to imply an insider group acting in unison, possibly with:

  • Access to private enforcement discussions,

  • A shared agenda, and

  • A coordinated strategy to intimidate a specific member.

This appears to me to open the door to:

  • Potential Brown Act violations (if there are unreported or informal board communications, such as what appears to be a board controlled private facebook group),

  • Retaliation claims, and

What may be violation of the HOA’s own rules of conduct and confidentiality.

Stack It All Together

  • Chalk hosing off = appears to me like retaliation masked as maintenance

  • Flyer removal = appears to me like silencing under the guise of policy

  • Email bans = appears to me like administrative discretion weaponized

  • Missed urine = appears to me not as oversight—but as evidence of what they choose to prioritize

It’s the cumulative pattern that, in my view, tells the story:

Protected speech punished, as I see it.
Nuisances ignored, from my perspective.
Power questioned = person punished, in my experience.

Why This Affects Every Resident

The board’s response wasn’t just excessive—it was dangerous.
They risk:

  • Losing D&O insurance

  • Individual liability

  • Court-ordered civil rights penalties

  • Further legal exposure for retaliation and selective enforcement

That’s why I’m: