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legitimate reason for feeling unsafe that she has a massage business down my street.” From there, the situation escalated. Ellis began sending weekly emails to the city, requesting updates on what she described as “unethical and disturbing” behavior. She was eventually told “appropriate actions were taken.” Eight months later, Ellis resumed her complaints, accusing Alvarez of harassment. “[Alvarez] is using her job to directly investigate me and attack my business,” Ellis wrote. “Today (on my birthday), she had my business investigated to try and maliciously attack me.” She continued: “I have had no issues with my home-based business for 15 years until Julie Alvarez developed a personal grudge against me. [She’ll] find any reason to be able to report complaints as if she were a neighbor (even though she does not even live on my street).” I have had no issues with my home-based business for 15 years until Julie Alvarez developed a personal grudge against me. ” SHANNON ELLIS Alvarez lives less than 500 feet away. While Ellis is a licensed massage therapist, she lacked the required city permit to operate her business from home. Maricopa City Code has required licenses for regulated businesses — including massage establishments — since 2004. Public records show Ellis started, but did not complete, a license application last year. She finalized the process and paid the necessary fees in May. Ellis told InMaricopa the situation was “extremely stressful.” She would not answer how long she had been operating unlicensed. Another backyard battle A similar — though more public — conflict played out in Thunderbird Farms, where Shell Abbott faced mounting resistance to her home- based German Shepherd breeding business. Abbott said the fate of her business had been uncertain for months. Though many neighbors and past clients voiced support, her next-door neighbors, Chad and Katie Buhr, strongly opposed it. In letters, public meetings, and filings with Pinal County, the Buhrs aired concerns about
Julie Alvarez stands outside her Villages at Rancho El Dorado home on July 16.
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her home for roughly 15 years — eventually filed an order of protection against her. Ellis declined to detail her side of the story, but her perspective is documented in a series of emails obtained via public records request. “Ms. Alvarez used her knowledge as a city employee to attempt to shut down a local business owner’s livelihood. This is unethical and disturbing. Especially since she represents our city,” Ellis wrote in an email to Alvarez’s supervisor in August 2024. Two sides to this story Alvarez, who works as an administrative
assistant for the City of Maricopa’s Development Services Department, said she discovered her neighbor’s business unintentionally. “I was looking through Facebook one day a couple weeks later and she showed up on my suggested friends list. I go, ‘Oh my God, that’s her,’” she said. “But, you know, natural curiosity — I clicked on her profile. I was like, ‘Oh, she has a massage business out of her home.’” She said she inquired with her department about Ellis’s licensing status out of safety concerns, not revenge. “People have to travel down my street to get to hers. I have daughters,” Alvarez said. “I have a
T BEGAN WITH WHAT SEEMED like a minor misunderstanding — a bark mistaken for a bite. “It was just a little bark. My
cameras caught it,” said Julia Hunt Alvarez, a resident of The Villages at Rancho El Dorado. “A lady that had been running down the street claimed my dog had bit her dog and she was threatening me as she was walking away.” Maricopa Animal Control got involved. The neighbor, Shannon Ellis, tried to press charges, Alvarez said. Though Alvarez attempted to apologize several times, Ellis — a massage therapist who has operated Hands of Silk from
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InMaricopa.com | August 2025
August 2025 | InMaricopa.com
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