Two things happened in that last week. Russell Nance formally requested that the enforcement matter be heard at an open board meeting rather than in a closed session on the grounds that the underlying question about enforcement standards affected every homeowner. And Clare Donnelly, asked directly by a board member whether the association had ever adopted a fence color standard, stated for the record that no such resolution existed in the association’s files. So the hearing that Vivien had designed as a quiet room with a fine at the end of it became a full board meeting with chairs set out for residents. The community room was fuller than I had ever seen it. Forty-some people, maybe more, some of whom I don’t think had attended a meeting in years. Vivien opened, and I will say this for her, she was good. She spoke calmly about a difficult enforcement matter, about a homeowner who had been uncooperative from the start, who had refused reasonable guidance, who had searched for technicalities rather than working with his neighbors, and who had consumed an extraordinary amount of the board’s volunteer time. She never raised her voice. She built a picture of a difficult man, and she built it carefully, and I watched people in the back row nod. I let her finish. Then I stood up with a folder and I did not tell a story because the person with the story loses to the person with the documents. I said, “Good evening,” thanked the board for the open session and said I had three items and one question. The first item was the covenants and the architectural guidelines, the association’s own governing documents with the fencing provision marked. I read the provision aloud in full. White vinyl or comparable material, 6 ft maximum, platted setback. Then I said, “Madame President, I have been asking one question for two months and I would like to ask it here. Please show this room the line that defines which white is permitted.” Vivien said the guidelines grant the committee discretion. I said I understood and asked again for the line. She said discretion does not require an enumerated list. I said I understood and asked a third time whether any such line existed anywhere in any document the association had ever adopted. The room got very quiet and she said that the standard was a matter of committee judgment which is of course an answer of no.
The second item was my invoice and the manufacturer’s specification sheet. Brighton Privacy 6-foot classic white CW17. I passed copies down the board table. Vivien said with real confidence that an invoice proves what a homeowner purchased, not that it meets community standards. And she was right about that. And I told her she was right. I said, “An invoice by itself proves nothing at all.” I said, “The invoice only becomes meaningful next to the third document.” Then I put down the architectural approval for the fence at Dana Prescott’s address, the original from the association’s own records. Same manufacturer, same model, same finish. Classic white CW17. Typed on the form. Approved. Signed. Vivien Caldwell, president and architectural committee chair. Dated 11 days after the violation letter on my house and in the notes in her handwriting: “Color and style appropriate for community standard.” I have never heard a room change that fast. It wasn’t a gasp. It was the opposite of a sound, a sort of collective settling, 40 people simultaneously understanding something. Dana Prescott was three rows from the front, and she put her hand over her mouth, and I felt bad for her in that moment because she had done absolutely nothing except buy a fence and be someone’s friend. Vivien moved immediately to the properties being different. Different street, different exposure, different setting. I said and I made sure to say it slowly that I was not asking about the property. I said, “You told me my color was wrong. You signed your name certifying that this exact color meets the community standard at another address 11 days later in your own handwriting. So I am asking the board a question that has one of two answers. Is CW17 acceptable in Ashberry Glenn or is it not?” She said the situations were not comparable. That’s when I said I had one more document. I laid down the contractor’s project documentation and on top of it the distributor’s letter. I said both installations used the same manufacturer, the same model, the same factory finish, and the same color code. And according to the distributor of record, the panels for both addresses came from the same production lot. Not a matching lot. The same one. The material on my property and the material on that property was manufactured in a single run and delivered on a single truck. Then I looked at her and I said the only sentence I had rehearsed. “Mrs. Caldwell, you can argue about sunlight. You cannot argue that sunlight changed the product code.”
Russell Nance did not even look at her. He turned to Clare and said, “Clare, did the architectural committee ever vote to deny Mr. Barrett’s application?” Clare said, “No.” Russell said, “Is there any adopted color standard in our records that his fence violates?” Clare said, “There is nothing in the records.” Russell said, “Do we have a submittal from him on file? And did we respond within the 30 days our own guidelines require?” Clare said, “We have his submittal. There’s no written response of any kind.” Then Russell turned to Vivien and asked the question the whole room was already holding. “So on what basis was the violation issued?” And Vivien Caldwell, president of the Ashberry Glenn Homeowners Association, said that as president she had a responsibility to protect the character and appearance of the community. That was the entire answer. Not a rule, not a vote, not a standard, a code, a resolution, a precedent, or a page number. Her judgment applied by her alone to one house. I didn’t need to say much after that. I slid the approval form to the middle of the table so everyone at the board could see it right side up and I said, “I don’t need any of you to like my fence. I only need the association to apply the same rule to the same fence.” Then I sat down.