LETTERS & BLOGS

October 28, 2024 Below is an older exposure to the Nextdoor social media website. It was used in the past to discredit people and ideas that were not in favor with those monitoring the information. Several years have passed and two "Leads" are no longer cherry-picking what you should and should not know. Nextdoor itself has matured but in the end, they are all about the advertising dollar. You may find the information interesting, but sad. Actually, we believe RING is replacing it's primary purpose. ___________________________________________________________________. October 23, 2022 A great deal of interest has been generated from this page. CHAPTERS one through four are below. In the following weeks we will continue to document the Nextdoor policies and how they affect your community.

Who's Behind Your Nextdoor?

Townhome's today's "Leads" are: Barbara Witczak, Cesi Kelley, and Debbie Garrison
  • Do you use the social media platform Nextdoor? Have you ever wondered how it works and whether there is an administrator(s) that monitors the conversations in your neighborhood? Have you ever seen an interesting post (conversation) disappear with no evidence it ever existed?
  • Nextdoor Rules For All Participants-
  • 1. Be respectful to your neighbors
  • 2. Do not discriminate
  • 3. Discuss important topics in the right way
  • 4. Promote local commerce the right way
  • 5. Use your true identity
  • 6. Do not engage in harmful activity All these rules make sense, right? Well, most neighbors would agree our neighborhood would be lucky to have Leads who are balanced and fair in their views who are monitoring your community conversations.
  • Nextdoor Leads (enforcers/judges) are people who have access to moderation tools to report members posts and conversations they personally feel are inappropriate and vote to immediately remove the post or allow it to stay on Nextdoor for further discussion. Basically, they are the police officers of Nexdoor. Today there are five Leads; Gus Gonzalez, Michael McIntire, Barbara Witczak, Cesi Kelley, and Debbie Garrison. You may recognize the first four as being Townhomes Board of Directors for years prior to calendar year 2020 and Debbie as President of the Board in 2020 and 2021.
  • Nextdoor Reviwer Team Member Jason Carroll: Review Team members are neighbors who have volunteered to help moderate the conversations in your neighborhood. When posts or comments are reported, Review Team members vote on whether those posts or comments should be removed or stay on the site. Selection of new reviewers have been discontinued from the Nextdoor wedsite as it was deemed an unsuccessful program.

  • Chapter Four (October, 2022
  • In the last few months, the Townhomes Board of Directors has been hoping to pass a new explicit “one size fits all” rule for eliminating most all interior repair when their maintenance on our roofs fails. This would replace a 35+ year CC&R’s policy of evaluating each occurrence on its own merit. We object to the change.
  • We are pleased to announce your neighbors challenged the passage of the new rule and forced an open Townhomes Meeting on November 14 at 5:30 “in person” at the clubhouse to explain and answer questions about the new rule. The post below was made on Nextdoor to alert you and your neighbors of the rule.

  • Brian Morris POST
  • • Camarillo Springs Townhomes
  • I agree with Debbie G. The purpose for the rule change has never been explained. The rule change has never been requested by the 121-home community. Most members of the community do not understand what the change means nor how it will affect their finances. The entire issue must be stopped and visited in total by the community with full transparency. As per past actions by Nextdoor, removing or hiding my post is a violation of my freedom of speech. This is an informative post for all that reside within the Camarillo Springs Townhomes. Please email your management company "today" and make your position known or else the rule will become binding, and homeowners victimized by failed maintenance will become financially responsible. No kidding here. Please check your personal email for information on this matter. If you need assistance seek it through this post as well.

  • Editor's Comment:
  • The “Reviewer Team Member” appointed by four (or perhaps only one) of the Leads Gus Gonzalez, Michael McIntire, Barbara Witczak, or Kelley is Jason Carroll. In all the 22 years that I have lived here I have never met, spoken, or even seen Jason Carroll. He has never been in any meeting I’ve attended whether in person or ZOOM. All I know of this person is he rents a home from his father two doors from Gus Gonzalez and they are said to have been very close friends for years. Below is Carroll’s post responding to mine. Criticism is one thing, but down right lies from invisible people while the leads who know the facts and the truth encourage the attacks is sad.

  • Jason C. POST
  • • Camarillo Springs Townhomes
  • Brian when you were on the board, for the 3rd and most recent time, didn’t you and the other board members cut back on regular maintenance to save money on HOA fees. And that included tree maintenance which included ones marked for removal which ended up falling over and hitting a home, cancelled regular gutter cleaning, ended the security patrolling and parking enforcement and started doing the parking enforcement yourself and now ppl park in front of their driveways and the list goes on about negative changes to the community. Then you quit the board after firing CPM our previous management company for crazy reasons and replaced it with a worse management company who’s now been replaced by CID. I find it ironic that you don’t take any responsibility or show any accountability of any of that. But you are good at pointing fingers at other ppl, I’ll give you that one.

  • Editor's Comment
  • Well, he got only two things right. Over the 22 years that I’ve lived here I did “serve” on the board three times over 5 ears collectively. I did not quit the board as so stated; I didn’t run for reelection. Neither did three other members of the board. “Serving” on the board is voluntary and not required. We feel we do more by serving our community through www.townhomesnews.com.
  • Although he’s a renter and never been in a board meeting, Jason knows he’s way upside down in his statements about maintenance, tree removal, parking, gutter cleaning, and even firing CPM. CPM FIRED TOWNHOMES, Jason. Do you want to see the letter of cancellation? Paseo Tosamar’s gossip is unreliable.
  • We never had a security patrolling contract. It’s intentionally misleading Paseo Tosamar gossip. Yes, we cancelled $4,000 a year for parking enforcement as CPM, Gus Gonzalez, and Michael McIntire stopped sending out violations. There are emails and the tracking of ignored violations … as proof. Just a deflection and willful waste of homeowner’s dues so some board members can be popular instead of effective. The parking is currently how the majority of homeowner’s prefer it. Mandatory reporting of plate numbers would change that.
  • The tree that fell behind 866 Paseo Tosamar had never been reported as dangerous or diseased. It was Brian Morris and Gold Coast Management who were first notified at 4:15AM of the tree downing. We had had heavy duty equipment and arborists cleaning up the mess within minutes after being notified. Even Gus sent Brian Morris a thank you note for the speedy and professional clean-up. But still, more Paseo Tosamar gossip.
  • Kid's like Jason are there to make our children look good. I've been posting on and reviewing Nextdoor for 15 years. It never fails to disappoint me.

  • Chapter Three (July, 2022) What type of Nextdoor User are you?
  • Fully engaged user-Upload posts and leave comments on other user’s posts.
  • Part-time user-Upload posts as needed for own personal use, leave comments on anything that may be interesting to you.
  • Stealth Observer-View everyone’s post you find interesting and never comment on a post.
  • Egotistic Moderator-These are self-appointed neighbors or lifetime narcs assigned by Nextdoor as "Leads" to monitor our Townhomes Nextdoor website. I think of them as the Nextdoor Police.
  • Deputy- These neighbors are appointed by the "Leads", aka Nextdoor Police in your neighborhood and are identified as a Review Team Member on Nextdoor. They share the responsibility of deciding whether a post is removed or not.
  • Did the below happen to you or maybe something similar? We would like to hear from you.

  • What do you do if your post on Nextdoor is suddenly removed?
  • This brings me to my years of experience with posting on Nextdoor. I recently posted a comment suggesting our neighbors to view an informational website reporting on the happenings in our community. Some of the Leads on Nextdoor are on my HOA board. They became concerned so my post was removed from Nextdoor without any notification. Clearly, there was information inside my post they were concerned about Nextdoor users seeing.
  • I decided to appeal to the Nextdoor Support via e-mail which is my only option.
  • After corresponding back and forth with the truth and facts, a Nextdoor “lead” agreed that I could return my post to Nextdoor on the condition the website address that was included in the post must be removed. As is their policy I was never provided with an explanation of why my post was removed or needed or its content to be edited.
  • Posts just disappear with no explanation unless you engage in multiple emails back and forth as I did.
  • At best, you are only informed that the post violated or did not meet their guidelines. No specifics.
  • I was finally able to deduce which Townhomes neighborhood “leads” decided to fabricate an excuse to the broader Nextdoor community of “leads” so that they all would agree my post must be removed.

  • Opinion:
  • In my opinion, if you are in the habit of being dishonest, you should not be a “Lead” on Nextdoor nor on the HOA board in your community. Both roles require neighbors of integrity and courage to moderate and report the truth.
  • Upon request we will be pleased to provide samples of emails I received from various Nextdoor Support representatives that replied to my emails in which I simply requested a valid reason for removing my post. You will find all were managed and influenced by your neighborhood leads. This type of aggressive behavior by your neighborhood "Leads" was deliberate and controlled our first amendment rights. We are neighbors and not subjects.
  • Chapter One (February 2022) Chapter Two is Below Chapter One Debbie has had a great deal of experience in researching the Nextdoor rules and sticking to them. We must all be disappointed when other leads apply a bias view of some people's posts and not the posts and comments of their own. Brian and Debbie have seen a great deal of nefarious activity by Nextdoor Leads and will be documenting them in future chapters. As we document this activity within the Townhomes Nextdoor social media in following chapters, we also wish to state clearly; Nextdoor is a valuable source of information for our community and serves many needs very well. It has been painfully shy, however, in allowing ideas or suggestions contrary to the Lead's comfort to be posted for discussion. Information should not be personalized nor should Nextdoor be used to post lies smearing individuals and then blocking the victim's responses when attempting to bring clarity. A most recent example of Nextdoor Leads managing what information Townhome's homeowners should receive occurred in early January. Debbie learned the next board meeting time had been changed from 5:30PM to 1:00PM with the only notice to homeowners being a slip of paper on the bulletin board. For over 20 years the meetings have been held at 5:30 to give the majority an opportunity to attend if need be. Work, medical appointments, and volunteer work were always considerations as well as a large percentage of homeowners do not live on-site. Debbie made a post on Nextdoor (see 03 Meeting Time Post) to inform our homeowners of the meeting time change and if they chose to object she outlined the proper procedure. It was deleted FIVE (5) times citing her breaking a Nextdoor rule which was finally determined to be bogus. Without Debbie's tenacity the issue would have been overlooked by many. Some might think so what? The issue is not the importance of the incident, but the fact that it so blatantly occurred at all. They didn't care. ( see 04 Summary Jan Post )

  • Nextdoor states that you can report moderators if you feel that they are unfair or are abusing their power. Attempts have been made at reporting Leads, but it's currently a closed system where honesty and justice are scarce. Who are the administrative staff of the Nextdoor Website Home Office and how do you communicate with them if you have questions or want to submit a complaint? Who responds to your inquiry? What are their priorities?

  • Stay tuned as we explore the world of Nextdoor. Your Nextdoor Lead's activities will be documented and those expecting just a few abuses will be disappointed. You decide if the Nextdoor Leads are honest and fair according to the governing rules put forth by the Nextdoor Administration. Nextdoor is meant to be for the entire neighborhood's benefit. _
Chapter Two (March, 2022)
Author's Note: In our efforts to generate knowledge and expose the pitfalls of the Camarillo Springs Golf Course destruction and its replacement with new homes, Oppose Camarillo Springs Building began posting on Nextdoor as a platform. We also hoped to have our Townhomes Board of Directors support the effort. Chapter Two exposes the control our management company and our board President had on what was posted and remained on Nextdoor as well as what neighborhood matters are to be discussed by the neighborhood. NOTE: HOA management companies are in the business providing their services to new housing projects. Gus Gonzales was announced and he acknowledged in person along with Ron Kester that he was a member of the “PRO-BUILDING” group during the first City Council meetings discussing the proposal. We were there. _ Board and CPM:
After receiving the e-mail below I have decided to resign from the Board of Directors for Palmeras Townhomes.A personal e-mail to another Board Member who was also a member of our OPPOSE team was forwarded by the recipient to the board president in which I was critical of within the same e-mail. I consider the reading other people's mail was deliberate. There are a lot of private conversations and letters that are unattractive, but not published and used to ridicule. You might have an issue if I copied the board, but it was private and it was brutally honest. Now it's public.I take offense to the board president citing a "code of conduct as HOA board members." Where is this code other than in his own mind? Does it apply to my private communications? Would lying to me or others in an official capacity be an offense? I know people that are direct and truthful and to some offensive, but they don't lie. You know, many years ago the same board president posted on the Nextdoor website an unsavory assessment of me and inaccurate reasons for my resignation to the board of directors of which he was not a part. I left without comment as the board all understood why. This time I will not. Gus was the board president I'm referring to. Gus posted to the community that I was asked to leave the board due to some inappropriate activity. I save these things, Gus. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I had resigned several weeks before and the board in it's entirety came to my home and asked that I stay. The reason I resigned again weeks later had everything to do with CPM and the pathetic way they handled our parking violations of which I was assigned the enforcement duty. You see, CPM held back mailing the violations while assuring me they had been mailed. They actually were mailed when they got around to it. Many homeowners received five to six violations (or even more) on the same day. At least 50% of those mailed were sent to the wrong homeowner. Keep in mind they were receiving the first warning violation and violations one through six (or even more) at the same time! The CPM manager mailed months of violations at the same time. This resulted in a packed board meeting and a great deal of hostility. The obvious homeowner complaint was if they would have received the warning, they would have stopped violating. At the end of every board meeting, I asked the CPM manager if she received the violations, did she understand them and were they mailed. Each time she answered yes. Well, I finally decided if we are going to continue using CPM, I just had to resign. I was seen as the parking Nazi and disgraced by some. There are people attracted to gossip and there are companies that whitewash their history. In the end the board president "posted" garbage on Nextdoor and I was unable to respond. Why didn't I sue the board President, Townhomes and CPM? I consulted my attorney, and we just didn't have enough damages to make it worth our time. After all, you're an HOA board, not a business and my skin isn't that thin.Through all the back and forth today regarding the e-mail addresses, take note that all responses to me dealt with how you can't do something (most typical), but not the fact that you said you could. Finally, Mac wrote in and confirmed you had agreed to e-mail our invitations. You flipped on your promises to me and your homeowners. Your stories and explanations became laughable, but I couldn't laugh.As I stated to Barbara Witczak: “Both Gus and CPM must go.
Brian Morris From: "Townhomes-Gus" To: "barbara.witczak" "Townhomes-Chelsi" "Townhomes-Jim Trout" "Townhomes-Macmcintire McIntire" "Brian Morris" Cc: "Sheldon Chavin" "Tami Chavin" Sent: Monday, July 15, 2019 3:37:50 PMSubject: Re: OPPOSE matters
Board and CPM:The email message below was sent to Barbara this afternoon. I am only going to say that this behavior by an active board member is offensive and completely unacceptable. Bullying, intimidation, vulgarity, and disparaging other board members, and staff, goes completely against our code of conduct as HOA board members.
We have been entrusted by our homeowners to maintain civility and professionalism in the conduct of our daily board activity. This behavior is exactly the reason why we refuse to share our homeowner's personal information. No board member, homeowner, or staff, deserves to be treated in this manner.
We will discuss this matter at the next meeting via open session, and/or executive session, if deemed necessary. Therefore, I will not comment further on this subject until the next meeting.
Thanks.Gus Gonzalez On Monday, July 15, 2019, 2:34:44 PM PDT, Barbara Witczak wrote:---------- Forwarded message ---------From: Brian Morris >Date: Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 2:08 PMSubject: Re: OPPOSE mattersTo: barbara.witczak >
Hello Barbara;Last Thursday they agreed to use the e-mails. They lied.All this hiding behind every legal analogy in order "not" to do something is going to stop!That includes the reasons why they must spend money as well.A lot of our OPPOSE members will be working long hours between now and Tuesday night to submit our EIR statement to the city. Meanwhile, Gus and Chelsi who maintain they're against the project will be sitting on their fat asses watching TV, eating pizza, and finding ways "not" to do the right thing.Our HOA is $55K in the hole only 18 months after rendering a special assessment to bring them on par in 2018. $55K is a lot of overspending without some bells going off before now! Those bells are supposed to come from CPM. Just like last time, the shortage came to the surface way late in the financial decay. Then, the first thing out of their mouths was another special assessment or fee increase instead of tightening our belts and responsibly working our way out of the hole. So disappointing, Barbara. Such lack of character; "It's just somebody else's money. Who cares?"
I can guarantee the meetings will be much more interesting. Brian Morris_ On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 1:05 PM Barbara Witczak > wrote:Hi Brian! I agree that you can get. Thanks Barbara_ On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 11:45 AM Brian Morris <brianmorris@dslextreme.com> wrote:Barbara;Did you ever agree to this comment in blue? The last directive we were given by the Board was that they did not want to use the Association’s e-mail blast list to distribute golf course development related matters. As such, we cannot e-mail it to Palmeras owners for you.Brian M From: "Brian Morris" >To: "Townhomes-Chelsi" >Cc: "Mia Townhomes-Calderon" >, "Townhomes-Gus" >, "Townhomes-Mac mcintire McIntire" >, "barbara.witczak" >, "Townhomes-Jim Trout" Sent: Monday, July 15, 2019 11:38:32 AMSubject: Re: OPPOSE matters
Chelsi:Your explanation is opposite what I summarized during the meeting last week in which you agreed.The previous discussion about e-mailing TH homeowners resulted in me being told we “Couldn’t" e-mail the homeowners, not that the board didn't want to. Who on the board directed you to withhold that courtesy? I wasn't consulted. There was no board vote. Just you?
STAY TUNED FOR CHAPTER THREE
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