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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO DISPATCH/OCTOBER 2020 - AN OPEN LETTER TO SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO RESIDENTS

At the end of September, John Alpay took some unusual steps in his bid to become a city councilman for SJC District 5. Deviating from the issues that SJC residents actually care about, he chose to portray himself as a victim and share cherry-picked allegations from a lawsuit he is currently engaged in with one of his neighbors. That neighbor is me. It was gut wrenching to learn that his salacious and untrue allegations were shared in a full-page ad with the general public in the Dispatch. Earlier that week, he sent out a three-page letter to the homeowners in our neighborhood expanding on those allegations and including other issues he has with the previous HOA Board.  Perhaps John Alpay thought a woman would be too intimidated to respond. He was wrong. He underestimated the response and support I have received from the people in the community. I have lived in my home in the Meredith Canyon neighborhood for over 20 years and raised my two daughters here.    

While “politics may be a dirty sport” to John Alpay, in our opinion, he has clearly shown himself to be the dirtiest player. Facts come first. In his letter, John Alpay claims that we have cameras on our property. That is true. We began installing these back in 2017 after numerous issues of trespass and damage started to occur on the side yard fence line that we share with John Alpay. Shortly after the Alpay’s moved into their house in 2016, someone started to demolish the shared fence and pilasters in our front yard. He rebuffed initial attempts to discuss his plans and intentions, only demanding that he was entitled to a view. We then noticed that the entire side fence was systematically being dismantled and weakened. In May 2017, we went to our HOA board to report this harassment and violation of shared property and the CC&Rs. In response we installed a camera in the back yard, pointed directly at the fence line, to see if we could capture how this damage was occurring.    

Issues on and around our property continued to escalate. John Alpay confiscated a ladder of a painter who was painting our house and stashed it on his rooftop. We finally had it returned after calling the sheriff to intervene on behalf of the painter.  Concerned and curious to learn the source of various incidents, we purchased a basic home security system and started to deploy the cameras along the fence line. We also installed 2 “dummy cameras” in our vehicle parked on the street which someone had damaged. Generally speaking, these cameras have been very helpful, since much of the harmful activity has since stopped. John Alpay has demanded that all of our cameras be removed. What could be his reasons for not wanting us to have security in our own yard?     

More importantly, he is suing us over a view issue – and his claim is that he deserves the right to an unfettered view into and across our yard. He wants a 40+ year old privacy hedge removed to achieve his goal. Our children and grandchildren swim in our pool. We value our privacy and we do not want to be on display just so he can look into and across our back yard. The irony of his demand to infringe on our privacy is simply amazing.    

Our plans to rebuild our deck were approved by the city of San Juan Capistrano and our HOA, (approved TWICE to be exact.) While our deck was being built, John Alpay commenced his own renovation. He built a second story over his garage. We objected to the fact that this new addition included a master bedroom window that directly peers into our master bathroom.  At the time John Alpay submitted his plans to the HOA and the city, the plans clearly showed this area as his new master suite (though in his letter he now claims it was for his teenage daughter.) Regardless, let us be crystal clear - at no time have any cameras been pointed at anything other than the fence and our property line. To suggest that they are pointed at their home or even a bedroom window is simply not true.    

John Alpay completely misrepresented the issue behind the security cameras and tried to infer that we are dangerous people. Worse than that, we believe that the intent of his letter was a dog whistle to defame us and incite the community.  This has now raised our concern to the well-being and safety of our family, and any threat to us that may develop is directly related to John Alpay’s reckless and outrageous false claims.     

Keep these facts in mind as we approach our November 3 election. In our opinion, John Alpay is deceptive and will spin any issue in his favor, use any individual to advance his interests, and then throw them aside as needed. Fortunately, the good people of Meredith Canyon have now seen for themselves what he is capable of.  If someone can’t even be a decent neighbor, how could that person possibly be a decent councilman to represent our community?     

On its face, this may appear to be a petty neighbor dispute. We wish it were that simple. Knowledge is power. And as residents of this district, we all have a right to know the character of our candidates. Actions speak far louder than words. We urge all residents to do your own research to learn about this candidate. Here are some points to consider:     

· John Alpay cost the residents of San Juan Capistrano approximately $18K in legal fees as he fought the $100 citation he was issued for illegally removing a 30+ year old majestic and healthy tree when the city had denied the permit months before. The tree was removed as part of his quest to obtain a better view, with no regard to our property diminution or potential slope erosion that affects the entire HOA community. He even applied for a hardship waiver for the $100 fine.     

 · The fact that he told the city manager in an email dated 5/10/18 that “Even if I lose the administrative appeal, it costs me all of $25 to file an appeal with the superior court. This will force the city to spend attorney time on this matter...”.    

 · John Alpay did not disclose that he was suing our HOA when he ran for the Board in the fall of 2019.  To us, and so many others in our community, that is a clear conflict of interest and this is the subject of much discussion in our community. There is  an active recall petition by the majority of our community demanding a revote based on this conflict of interest.    

My husband Gary and I are humbled and grateful for the incredible outpouring of support that we have received from our neighbors in our defense against his abhorrent and misleading letter. We thank you for reaching out in so many ways to us.    

There is no “whisper campaign” as John Alpay alleges. It is a loud and clear denunciation of outrageous behavior and an inappropriate distortion of facts. Thank you for taking the time to learn the truth behind these allegations that   John Alpay has decided to publicly air. The residents of San Juan Capistrano deserve better.     

Deb and Gary Dorris  

Originally published in The Capistrano Dispatch October 2020