Two years.
Same board.
Their decisions.

At a public meeting, the board said Park West "sent us a $300,000 bill." That obligation accounts for most of the $362,000 charged to Landscape Repairs in 2025 against a $20,000 budget.

The overruns continued. In the first five months of 2026, landscaping cost nearly $390,000 against approximately $276,000 budgeted, roughly $113,000 over budget.

Source: Association financial statements, 2025 year-end and January–May 2026. Available to homeowners through the HOAWorks portal.

Fire Department records produced by the City of Brea show a March 2025 complaint under the prior landscaper that was resolved within approximately six weeks.

After the vendor change:

• October 2025: Debris left behind after tree trimming.
• February 2026: A previously cleared slope flagged again for inadequate defensible space.
• April 20, 2026: A formal, fee-bearing correction notice — $133 re-inspection fee, re-inspection set for May 20. Conditions stayed non-compliant through May, and in September management asked the Fire Department to confirm the May clearance had ever been done.
• September 2026: Further vegetation complaints. Management questioned whether earlier work had been completed.
• October 1, 2026: A second formal, fee-bearing 30-day correction notice.

• Why did the board terminate Park West without budgeting for the $300,000 obligation?
• What qualified the replacement landscaper? Where are the bids, selection records and signed contract?
• If management acknowledged unsatisfactory work in May, why is the same vendor still maintaining Blackstone?

The board replaced Park West. Homeowners got higher costs and recurring problems. The board must account for both.

Any new landscaping contract should be available for homeowner inspection, with verified qualifications, applicable licenses and insurance, and clear performance standards. The board still needs to account for the existing contract, transition costs and unresolved work.

Secretary of State and City of Brea records identify a separate LLC, with a different owner and address from the cited license holder. On its own Brea business-license application, the state contractor-license field is blank.

Public-record searches also returned no pesticide-applicator business license for the LLC, despite reports of its crews applying chemicals on community slopes.

Management and the Association's attorney have repeatedly assured homeowners that the landscaper is licensed. But the license number they cite belongs to the sole proprietorship, not the LLC identified as performing the work.

A CSLB license covers the specific legal entity to which it is issued. A sole proprietorship's license does not license a separate LLC, even if the businesses have similar names. The LLC must itself be properly licensed for work requiring a contractor's license.

Homeowners still lack the documentation needed to verify those assurances.

• The attorney: A subcontractor arrangement involving another company whose winning bid was later released.
• Management: A competitive selection among three bidders.
• The board: Separate landscapers hired one after another.

These accounts have not been reconciled. The signed contract remains unavailable.

Hiring a contractor without the license required for its work can expose the Association to avoidable financial risk:

• Worker injuries. If the contractor lacks workers’ compensation coverage, the Association could face financial liability for injuries.
• Property damage. Without applicable liability insurance, damage caused by the contractor could leave the Association or its insurer paying the bill.
• Fewer financial protections. An unlicensed company may lack the contractor license bond that helps compensate consumers for qualifying losses from defective work or licensing-law violations.

Costs the Association must absorb ultimately affect homeowners, potentially through higher dues, special assessments or money diverted from maintenance.

Payments already made may be recoverable. If the company performed work requiring a contractor’s license without holding that license, California Business and Professions Code §7031(b) may allow the Association to seek repayment, potentially including all compensation paid for the covered work, subject to applicable exceptions. The Board should obtain a legal assessment of whether homeowner funds can be recovered.

The signed contract. The license covering the contracted entity's work. The applicable insurance documentation.

The non-cancelable financing carries payments of roughly $9,000–$10,000 a month, alongside a long-term software commitment.

In April 2026, the Association recorded $9,899.56 against $0 budgeted for that line. Homeowners are funding an obligation absent from that budget.

The deal was never brought back for final approval in open session. Blackstone's bylaws restrict contracts extending beyond one year without membership approval. The board still needs to explain its authority for this commitment.

Homeowners have requested the full camera contract and software-licensing agreement. Neither has been produced in full.

Homeowners are already paying for the camera system, but the Board has not finalized the policy governing access to and use of its footage.

That policy should establish who can view recordings, how homeowners request footage, how long recordings are retained, and what privacy and oversight safeguards apply. Those rules should have been settled before payments began.

Blackstone already spends roughly $325,000 a year on patrol. The change from Allied to A-Source appears in the minutes as a report rather than an open-session contract approval.

The board should explain what each service delivers and how it evaluates the results of the combined spending.

HOAWorks says the cameras primarily monitor mailbox areas, not neighborhood streets, yet not all mailboxes are covered. Homeowners have received no complete location map or placement rationale. What coverage exists when a car is broken into or suspicious activity occurs elsewhere?

On October 2, a sitting director acknowledged trouble retrieving footage from an area with at least six cameras installed.

For a six-figure system, homeowners deserve to know what it covers and whether usable footage is available when needed.

• What authority supported the multi-year commitment without a final open-session vote or membership approval?
• How are the unbudgeted payments being funded?
• When will homeowners receive the full contract, licensing agreement and camera inventory?
• When will the access-and-use policy be finalized and formally adopted?

The board committed the money before providing homeowners with a complete account of the cost, authority or rules. Payments are underway. The explanations are overdue.

The Association is preparing an updated reserve study. Homeowners should be able to compare it with the January 2025 study.

The board should explain every material change, including projects removed or postponed, revised costs and replacement schedules, and the basis for those decisions.

The 2025 year-end financial statement shows $0 in reserve contributions against $471,108 budgeted. Contributions were budgeted again for 2026, but financial statements through May show none made.

The reserve account is not empty. The money budgeted to replenish it was not contributed.

Source: Association 2025 year-end financial statement, available to homeowners through the HOAWorks portal.

Monthly financial statements are available through May 2026. The portal has not been updated with subsequent monthly statements, so homeowners cannot see whether contributions resumed after May.

Meanwhile, landscaping ran approximately $113,000 over budget in January–May 2026, and 2025 legal spending reached roughly three times its budget. The Association continued spending approximately $325,000 annually on patrol while adding camera-financing payments of roughly $9,000–$10,000 per month.

The reserve study identifies major repairs and replacements needed this decade, including streets, fencing, metalwork, perimeter walls and grounds lighting. Those costs don't disappear when scheduled reserve contributions aren't made.

How will the board replace missed contributions, address the reserve shortfall and fund upcoming repairs?

Homeowners deserve a written funding plan with amounts, funding sources and deadlines.

Source: Association reserve study dated January 1, 2025, available to homeowners through the HOAWorks portal.

Homeowners submitted written requests for landscaping and patrol contracts, the management agreement, accounting records and written board approvals. What followed:

1. May 5, 2026Request submitted

   Members submit a certified §5200 records request.

   Current-year records due May 19. Prior-two-year records due June 6.

2. June 6, 2026Deadline passed

   The first request's statutory window closes without the requested records being produced.

3. June 15, 2026Further request

   Members request executed contracts, the general ledger, check registers and written board approvals.

   Current-year records due June 29. Prior-two-year records due July 15.

4. June 30, 2026Still nothing produced

   Members are directed to an HOAWorks portal that does not contain the specifically requested records.

5. July 25, 2026Partial production

   The first production arrives approximately seven weeks after the initial deadline. The response remains incomplete.

6. OUTSTANDINGNot produced

   Executed vendor contracts and written board approvals remain outstanding.

   Without these documents, homeowners cannot fully verify who was hired, what was agreed to, what was paid or what the board authorized.

Blackstone pays HOAWorks to maintain Association records, provide accurate financial reporting and respond to homeowners.

Financial statements through May 2026 and the January 2025 reserve study are available through the homeowner portal. The portal has not been updated with subsequent monthly financial statements. Directing homeowners there also does not answer requests for contracts, approvals and other records that aren't posted.

Homeowners should not need repeated certified requests and months of follow-up to inspect basic agreements paid for with their dues.

If a requested record is subject to inspection, make it available. If the Association claims an exception, identify the legal basis.