BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  ACR 20
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 13, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
                                   Mike Eng, Chair
              ACR 20 (Bill Berryhill) - As Introduced:  February 9, 2009
           
          SUBJECT  :  State Route 99

           SUMMARY  :  Designates a segment of State Route (SR) 99 as the  
          Sergeant Howard King Stevenson Memorial Highway.  Specifically,  
           this bill  :  

          1)Recounts the career and untimely death of Howard King  
            Stevenson, an officer with the Ceres police Department.  

          2)Designates the segment of SR 99 in the City of Ceres, between  
            exits 218 and 223, northbound and southbound, as the Sergeant  
            Howard King Stevenson Memorial Highway.  

          3)Requests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to  
            determine the cost of appropriate signs, consistent with the  
            signing requirements for the state highway system, showing the  
            special designation and, upon receiving donations from  
            nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.  

           EXISTING LAW  :  Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating  
          and maintaining state highways.  This responsibility includes  
          the installation and maintenance of highway signs.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  Unknown

           COMMENTS  :  Sergeant Howard King "Howie" Stevenson was born on  
          February 18, 1965, and on June 3, 1986, at 21 years of age,  
          became a peace officer with the Ceres Police Department.  

          On January 9, 2005, while responding to a call for assistance at  
          a local liquor store, Sergeant Stevenson and fellow officers  
          were ambushed and met with a hail of gunfire from an assault  
          rifle. He died almost instantly.  

          Howard Stevenson was the first police officer in the 86-year  
          history of the City of Ceres to be killed in the line of duty.   
          A mile-long procession of police cars, motorcycles, fire engines  
          and ambulances accompanied his remains to their final resting  
          place.  He is remembered affectionately by his fellow officers  








                                                                  ACR 20
                                                                  Page  2

          as being a role model and mentor to younger officers, and as  
          being "a cops' cop."  
           
           Author's amendments  :  This bill's proposed highway naming would  
          conflict with two existing namings on SR 99: the Joash E. Paul  
          Memorial Highway and the John G. Veneman Freeway.  The author  
          therefore proposes to amend the bill so that it instead  
          designates a Sergeant Howard K. Stevenson Memorial Interchange  
          on SR 99 at Whitmore Avenue.  

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :  

           Support 
           
          American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees  
          (AFSCME)

           Opposition 
           
          None received
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :   Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093