By Ricardo Roura
07 Oct 2024, 15:50 PM EDT
California vineyard owner sues Santa Clara County after officials fined him for allowing a long-time Hispanic employee to live in a mobile home for free.
Michael Ballard, whose family owns Savannah-Chanelle Vineyards in a town south of San Francisco, alleged that They imposed a total fine of more than $120,000 dollars after the county said it violated local zoning laws that prohibit anyone from living in a mobile home on public or private property.
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The employee, Hispanic Marcelino Martínez, manager of the 2.6 million square foot vineyardsaid his family lost the lease on a trailer they lived in for years and had limited options for finding affordable housing in the area.
Since 2013 he has lived in a mobile home
The Ballard family agreed to allow them to live in an RV in the vineyards, which Martinez, his wife and children have lived in free of charge since 2013.
“I couldn’t leave a family homeless for arbitrary reasons. The human impact outweighed any damage or inconvenience that his being in the trailer was going to create,” Ballard told The Mercury News.
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It was in July 2019 when The county began fining the Ballards $1,000 a day for the mobile home. and later reduced the penalty to $250 per day, according to the vineyard owner.
Santa Clara County denied fining Ballard $120,000 and said the vineyard owner refused to agree to deadlines for reducing violations. Officials have made multiple offers to dramatically reduce fines if you remove the RV.
Excessive County Fines
Ballard’s attorney, Paul Avelar, said the county was imposing excessive fines and violating the United States Constitution with his actions against the owner of the vineyard.
Ballard disagrees that the county spent so much time penalizing him when facing bigger problems.
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“If you drive anywhere in the county, you will find mobile homes parked everywhere. “There are camps everywhere,” he said.
Ballard said that the problem is obvious and manifest, but that they were choosing to prosecute them for what is probably the least intrusive example of the problem, in which someone is allowed to live on private property, in a private place and without disturbing anyone.
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