I Turned Off My Ranch Water for One Day — HOA Karen Called 911 Because Her Whole Street Went Dry
Chapter 14
Theme:
Font Size:
24px
Before the filings became public, I sent Linda a copy of the formal complaint's cover page. Janet had advised me to let counsel handle communication, and in retrospect she was right. At the time I wanted Linda to know she was no longer arguing with a man about cattle odor; she was answering questions about a buried four-inch pipe. The return receipt showed that she signed for the envelope on a Wednesday morning at 10:14. Three days later she called an emergency meeting of the Ridgecrest HOA.Roy Bennett phoned me after the meeting. He was a forty-eight-year-old accountant who lived near the clubhouse with his wife and two children. We'd spoken only once before, at the feed store, when he'd asked whether the wildflowers along my fence bloomed every spring. His voice now carried the hesitation of a man who didn't know whether his neighbor would consider him an enemy. He explained that he had voted for Linda in previous HOA elections but was beginning to question the information she provided."She says you're threatening to cut off our water," he told me. "She says we should prepare for a legal battle.""I haven't threatened to shut anything down," I said. "I have an unauthorized connection on my land and a formal investigation underway. I intend to keep people supplied while the proper authorities determine how to replace it."Roy was silent for several seconds. "That isn't what we heard tonight. She had a presentation. Pictures of your ranch. A slide called 'Protecting Our Community's Future.' Then she proposed an assessment of fifteen thousand dollars per house."I did the calculation automatically. Sixty-two times fifteen thousand was nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Nearly a million dollars drawn from households already living with the uncertainty of a questionable water supply, all to fund a lawsuit Linda wanted to direct against me. I asked Roy whether she had shown the homeowners a water service agreement.He said she'd refused to discuss permits, claiming the technical details were confidential. Seventeen people applauded her speech. Others had started asking questions, and Roy was one of them."I'm not trying to leave your family without water," I told him. "I wouldn't want that for anyone. But Glenn Caldwell needs to show you what you paid for. You should ask for the water records before voting for another assessment.""I think I will," Roy said. "I'm embarrassed it took a week without water to ask where the water came from."Glenn Caldwell came to the ranch the following Saturday. He arrived in a black King Ranch pickup with dealer plates, stopped halfway across the gravel drive, and walked toward me as if his presence were a business appointment I had requested. He wore polished boots, a short-sleeved shirt, and a watch whose metal caught the sunlight with every impatient gesture. He was fifty-two and had the brisk, practiced confidence of a developer accustomed to settling complaints by making someone feel unreasonable for asking questions.