The other board members gathered in a loose group a few feet away. One of them, a woman who had apparently seen Donna's community post earlier in the week and had initially been sympathetic to it, was now looking at the plat map that Deputy Wallace had spread across the hood of his patrol car, tracing the boundary lines with her finger, putting together for herself what the document said. She was not saying anything, but her face was saying quite a lot.
Another board member was on his phone, and from his posture and his short, careful answers to whoever he was talking to, it appeared he had already called the HOA's own attorney and was being walked through something uncomfortable.
Thomas Garrett finished his conversation with Gerald Finch. He turned to look at Donna. She was standing apart from the group now, the clipboard still in her hand, but not raised anymore, her earlier certainty replaced by something that looked more like a trapped calculation.
Garrett said her name. She looked at him. He said, in a voice that was controlled and specific and not particularly kind, "You didn't consult the board." It was not a question.
Donna said that she had acted as president, which gave her authority to respond to community emergencies.
Garrett said that calling law enforcement on a neighboring landowner who was doing lawful work on his own private property was not a community emergency response, and that the president did not have unilateral authority to take that kind of action without a board vote. He said she had not reviewed the founding documents.
She started to say something about how there had not been time.
He interrupted her, which was apparently unusual enough that the people watching straightened up slightly. He said there was always time to read the documents before calling the police on someone.