ask the board for an independent audit. He was afraid an ordinary resident's complaint would disappear into committee minutes. I understood the fear, although I also understood that using his material carelessly could damage innocent people. With his permission, I photographed the pages necessary to establish the bridge payment and wrote down exactly when I had received them.
Mitch was interested immediately. He advised Kent to retain independent counsel and warned me that an HOA's internal financial disputes were not automatically mine to litigate. But the bridge payment was directly relevant to who commissioned the destruction and how they intended to justify it. Mitch sent a formal request for the underlying contract, board authorization, insurance correspondence, and communications with the demolition company. The association's attorneys answered slowly, but their silence did not change the bank record.
I next called Andrea Walsh, an investigative journalist who had spent years covering county government. Her first response was properly skeptical. She asked whether this was simply one angry landowner trying to embarrass a woman who had embarrassed him. I told her she was welcome to arrive believing exactly that, provided she would look at the documents before leaving. We met at the diner on a Tuesday, and I brought two binders.
Andrea asked questions I liked because they were difficult. Could I prove the commissioner's personal relationship affected any decision? Not yet. Did I have a written finding that Meadowbrook's treatment plant violated state requirements? No; I had permit documents and a request for inspection.