In its article dated September 29, 2025, the Open Vallejo team shed a light on the comments about the shooting of a man suffering a mental health crisis. A national use-of-force expert called the commentary “wildly inappropriate,” while Vallejo’s mayor called for one official’s “immediate removal” from the investigation.

On October 17, 2025, the Open Vallejo team published a follow up article that shared how Balbuena blocked Open Vallejo reporters, and later Open Vallejo itself, from viewing his personal Facebook account, which he had long used to comment publicly on both police and planning issues, often in local discussion groups such as Vallejo City Politics and Eyes on Vallejo.

On Oct. 2, 2025, Open Vallejo’s attorney Matthew Cate sent a new demand letter alleging that the blocking of Open Vallejo and its reporters “constitutes unlawful viewpoint discrimination” under the First Amendment and deprives the public of “access to important public information regarding Planning Commission business and the business of the Critical Incident Review Board.”

Open Vallejo filed public records requests on Oct. 7 for copies of Balbuena’s posts relating to the Schumann shooting.