August 2026
The decision arrives: upheld, with the question expressly left for a court
The hearing officer's written decision was finally served, a month after the hearing. It upholds the citation while stating that the preemption argument "may be true," that ruling on it is outside an administrative hearing's purview, and that a correct ruling "would invalidate the entirety of the City's regulation as to noise emanating from vehicles." The decision itself points to the appeal: "An appeal of this decision to a higher court may provide such relief." The date stamps show the hearing officer signed promptly and the city held the signed decision for weeks before serving it. The full decision is hosted here, redacted for personal information. The Superior Court appeal under Government Code section 53069.4 is in preparation.
August 2026
Records fights, and the city's own video
New records requests went to the city: one for the complete case file, hearing audio, and correspondence around the withheld decision, and one for the body-worn camera footage and operational records behind the July enforcement wave. The police department closed the second with a blanket investigatory-records exemption. A reconsideration is pending, resting in part on a simple fact: the city published body-worn camera footage of one of these very stops on its own social media, and disclosure to the public waives the exemption for that record.
August 2026
The site goes live
newportnoisetickets.com launched with the full case file: the law, the city's citation ledger and hearing decisions obtained under the Public Records Act, contest templates, and the document generator. The @newportnoise account followed.
July 2026
The hearing, and a month of silence
The administrative hearing was held by Zoom. No facts were contested; the entire defense was the city's lack of authority. The code requires the hearing officer to issue a decision within ten days. What followed instead were weekly written follow-ups and a city position, stated in writing, that no deadline governs serving the decision on the person who paid the deposit.
July 2026
The records arrive: 762 citations, $129,719, and no dismissed status
The city's productions under the Public Records Act: a citation ledger showing 762 section 10.28.007 citations since 2021 (6 in all of 2024, then 221 in 2025, 525 through July 10, 2026), $129,719 collected, and a payment-status field with no value for a dismissed citation. More than 40 written hearing decisions followed, including the March 6, 2026 decision (citation ADM24419D) overturning a vehicle noise citation on the evidence, in a case where the driver also raised preemption.
Spring 2026
The citation, and the contest
A $200 administrative citation under NBMC 10.28.007 for two momentary engine revs. No meter, no measurement, no inspection. The contest was filed within the 21-day window with the full deposit: a written statement, a records request for the body-worn camera footage, and an evidence submission arguing the citation is invalid under state law. The recording, when produced, showed the citation was decided before contact and presented as a favor.
March 2026
A hearing officer overturns one of these citations
In the decision the city would later produce under the Public Records Act (citation ADM24419D, hosted here, redacted for personal information), a hearing officer overturned a section 10.28.007 vehicle noise citation for insufficient evidence, writing that an officer's "subjective interpretation that the engine or exhaust noise was too loud is not viable to sustain the citation" for a stock vehicle. The appellant had also raised preemption, which the officer did not reach. The city's enforcement continued at scale: the ledger records 352 further citations under the section from that date through July 10.
2025 through 2026
The program scales
The ordinance last changed in 2001. Citations under it ran 1, 4, 5, and 6 per year from 2021 through 2024. Then 221 in 2025 and 525 in the first half of 2026, concentrated on weekends and holiday enforcement waves the police department described in its own social media posts.