SAN FRANCISCO –– A Fremont resident claims the city violated his civil rights numerous times.
Julian Tello Jr. filed a complaint on Aug. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Californiaagainst the city of Fremont and the state of California.
According to the pro se complaint, Tello alleges city and state officials acted unconstitutionally by allowing public parking near his home and declaring Fremont a "sanctuary city."
The lawsuit also wants the court to invalidate a city council election.
“The City of Fremont or the State of California has no authority to take actions, create laws or enforce laws that are in conflict with the United States Constitution,” Tello wrote in the lawsuit.
Tello says he asked city officials to prohibit parking in an area near his corner lot to allow him and his family to see better when they were coming in and out of their driveway, but the city refused.
Tello claims the area was previously restricted to parking. Tello said he believes the refusal to honor his request is related to the city’s practice of allowing non-district council representation.
“Because of the size of the city of Fremont, the plaintiff and his family’s constitutional rights are being poorly represented by non-district elected council members, and it is alleged that this fact contributed to the discrimination the plaintiff and his family experienced,” Tello wrote in the lawsuit. City officials are not required to live in Fremont also was a factor in the alleged discrimination, he claims.
In addition, Tello wrote his family cannot "freely exercise their Christian faith, because the city’s state religion is anti-Judeo and anti-Christian."