An unidentified person, worked up about cars parked on streets and garbage cans left by curbs, has been rattling Redmondites with long, unofficial letters that threaten fines up to $400, towed vehicles and a call to the police.

“You are completely disrespecting all the other members of this neighborhood and the CC&R committee will no longer put up with your total selfish and disregard including creating a hostile nature among the rest of your neighbors for all of those who live around you,” stated the most recent letter, which was signed “CC&R Committee President” and postmarked June 16.

“You are clearly one of the reasons this CC&R Committee had to be created.”

CC&R stands for “codes, conditions, and restrictions.” They are the rules that people agree to follow when they join a homeowners association.

“It’s somewhat disturbing with how specific they’ve gotten,” said Glenn Means, who’s received three of the letters.

Means isn’t the only recipient, either. Redmond Police Chief Dave Tarbet received one, as did a Deschutes County sheriff’s deputy. The city itself received a letter a couple of months ago and Redmond Mayor George Endicott got his March 30. He brought it up at a City Council meeting, where he assured anyone else who might have received a letter that it is bogus.

“There has been a letter circulating in Redmond that has to do with CC&Rs and HOAs and it’s unsigned, with no return address, and postmarked out of Portland,” Endicott said at the April 12 meeting, adding that the neighborhoods targeted by the letters don’t even have a homeowners’ association, nor CC&Rs. “I got one, many of my neighbors got one, and the city got one. It’s a multipage letter threatening doom and gloom for anybody out of compliance with CC&Rs.”

Variations of the original four-page letter have been sent out through the Postal Service three times since March, including the one sent out last week, and they either target residents of Juniper Hills and Majestic Ridge neighborhoods, two subdivisions southwest of downtown Redmond, or “all neighborhoods in Redmond,” according to the letters. The letters, which are frequently grammatically incorrect and rambling, threaten fees and official action if various code violations — such as garbage cans on the street or backyard structures blocking neighbors’ views — aren’t remedied immediately.

Means, who lives in Majestic Ridge, said the letters don’t provide a way to pay any of the “fees,” even though there’s a list of local nonprofit organizations that letter recipients are told to donate to or volunteer at. Means said he called the police about the most recent letter.

“It’s been going on for some months now, and we thought it was over but then we got this new one a few days ago,” Means said. “The first one is four pages long and kind of incoherent, but the new one is pretty specific. It’s kind of gotten to all of us.”

Chief Tarbet said on Wednesday that the author of the letters — whoever it is — has yet to cross the line into criminal activity.

“There’s no HOA, and this is an individual who seems to be upset with people having trailers in their driveway and having cars parked on the road,” he said. “This person continues to send these letters to these people thinking that eventually they’ll cave in. I have an officer working on it, and he’s still looking at it, but presently there’s no crime being committed. It appears me to be an obsession, but that’s an opinion.”

Endicott, who’s only received one of the letters, said that the letter writer is treading on dangerous territory, legally speaking.

“Whoever is doing it has no authority to do so,” Endicott said Tuesday. “Basically if we catch him, I told (Police Chief Dave Tarbet) not to cut him any slack. Some people are pretty upset, that’s why I brought it up at the council meeting.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

awest@bendbulletin.com