Naomi stopped clicking her pen. She looked at Celeste, then at me, and asked whether somebody could explain what I meant. Celeste began a sentence about the association's design standards, but I told Naomi I could show her the documents and went into the house for my folder. I did not hurry, because all the relevant papers were already in order.
I handed over the permit first, then the signed setback plan, the manufacturer data, the first five-hundred-dollar fine, the board's hearing notice, the fourteen-day removal demand, the continuing-fee ledger, and the three-thousand-dollar statement. Last came the plastic sleeve taken from my garage door the previous night. Naomi read without speaking, occasionally asking for a date or turning back to a particular page.
"Has the association obtained a court order or your consent to remove this installation?" she asked.
"Neither," I said. "My attorney is handling that question."
Celeste interjected that the board had a responsibility to enforce its covenants and that county permits did not excuse homeowners from aesthetic requirements. Naomi replied that she was not there to interpret the association's declaration, and neither the fire district nor its personnel were deciding private covenant questions. What interested her was whether a working emergency supply had been scheduled for demolition at the same time the neighborhood was experiencing the risk described in a previous county assessment.
That last phrase made Grant, who had joined us near the gate, raise his head. Naomi had not yet seen Elliot's newsletter, and as far as she knew the dispute was new. She asked why I had placed the tank at that particular point instead of farther toward the center of my backyard. I told her the location had been identified years earlier as a viable place to consider static water access.
Celeste turned toward me so quickly that I heard the gravel shift under her shoes. "Identified by whom?" she asked.
"The county assessment," I said. "The one I requested a copy of in June."
Naomi brought up a map on her tablet. She recognized the assessment immediately and scrolled to the northern boundary. The possible static supply point appeared near my lot, along with a note that its feasibility would depend on site-specific approval and access. She studied the tank, the driveway, and the location of the upper hydrant, then asked whether the association had ever completed a follow-up study.
Grant looked at Celeste. "We never saw that report," he said.
For a moment, nobody spoke. Celeste said she did not recall receiving such an assessment and that the board had dealt with a retaining-wall issue around that time. Naomi replied that the district could check its records and confirm what had been sent. She was careful to add that a recommendation was not an order and that associations could decide not to fund every suggested improvement.
Then she opened the transmission record. The assessment had been emailed four years earlier, on October ninth, to the address the association maintained for its president. A follow-up request for acknowledgement had been sent two weeks later. The system showed a reply confirming receipt under Celeste Whitmore's name.