California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 67

Introduced by Assembly Member Alejo

June 24, 2013

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 67—Relative to highways.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 67, as introduced, Alejo. State highways: designations.

This measure would designate portions of State Highway Routes 152, 1, 129, and 101 in the Counties of Monterey and Santa Cruz as the Dolores Huerta Highway, the Senator Henry J. Mello Highway, the Oscar Rios Highway, and the Gateway to the Pinnacles Highway, respectively.

The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing each of these special designations and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering the cost of the signs for which the donations were made, to erect those signs.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, Dolores Huerta, born April 10, 1930, is a labor
leader and civil rights activist who, along with César Chávez,
cofounded the National Farmworkers Association, which later
became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), and gained
national attention after Huerta led a boycott of table grapes in the
1960s; and

WHEREAS, Dolores Huerta has received numerous awards for
her community service and advocacy for workers’, immigrants’,
and womens’ rights, including the Eugene V. Debs Foundation
Outstanding American Award, the United States Presidential
Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, and the Presidential
Medal of Freedom; and

WHEREAS, Dolores Huerta spent time in the City of
Watsonville organizing farmworkers for fair treatment; and

WHEREAS, The 1960s boycott of table grapes led by Dolores
Huerta was supported by an estimated 17 million Americans, and
brought the plight of farmworkers into the public eye, leading to
the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act,
which allowed farmworkers the right to organize and bargain for
better working conditions and higher wages; and

WHEREAS, Dolores Huerta also helped lead a 10-year effort
to gain amnesty for farmworkers who had lived, worked, and paid
taxes in the United States, resulting in the Immigration Reform
and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to 1.4 million
farmworkers; and

WHEREAS, After leaving the UFW in 2002, Dolores Huerta
focused her attention on a host of other issues, including
immigration, ensuring Latino children receive quality educations,
feminism, equality for women, and reproductive freedom; and

WHEREAS, As the president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation,
Dolores Huerta organizes forums and programs that focus on social
justice and public policy issues, as well as encouraging people to
participate in elections to help choose their representatives; and

WHEREAS, State Senator Henry J. Mello, born and raised in
Watsonville, was the son of Portuguese immigrant parents, and
attended Watsonville High School in Watsonville and Hartnell
College in Salinas; and

WHEREAS, In the 1940s, Henry Mello helped start the Mello
Packing Company, a family apple business, and became involved
in public service as a member of the California Agricultural
Advisory Board; and

WHEREAS, Henry Mello was elected as a Santa Cruz County
supervisor in 1966, to the Assembly in 1976, and to the Senate in
1980, and represented the Counties of Santa Cruz and San Benito,
as well as parts of the Counties of Monterey and Santa Clara in
the Legislature until 1996; and

WHEREAS, Henry Mello quickly rose to leadership positions
by his appointment to the Senate Rules Committee and his election
as Majority Whip and later as Majority Leader, and authored 726
bills, of which 456 were signed into law, with 120 of those bills
focused on senior issues; and

WHEREAS, Henry Mello was proud of his creation of the
California Senior Legislature and authorship of legislation dealing
with Alzheimers, including bills on respite care, adult day health
care, and prevention of senior abuse; and

WHEREAS, Henry Mello was known by his colleagues as a
tough negotiator and for his dedication to his district and
constituents; and

WHEREAS, After leaving the Senate, Henry Mello worked
with the Department of Transportation to prioritize the construction
of one of the most important projects within the state highway
system, an overpass to improve traffic safety on the dangerous
intersection of State Highway Route 1 and Salinas Road; and

WHEREAS, Henry Mello’s legacy in the Pajaro Valley and
California will forever be remembered; and

WHEREAS, Oscar Rios was born in El Salvador in 1950, and
in 1960 his family emigrated to San Francisco, where he became
a United States citizen, later moving to Watsonville in 1985; and

WHEREAS, Oscar Rios became the regional organizer for La
Alianza, a nonprofit agency that provides advocacy referral and
citizenship processing, and was an organizer during the Watsonville
cannery strikes that lasted from 1985 to 1987, the longest cannery
strikes in United States history, and that were led primarily by
women cannery workers; and

WHEREAS, In 1989, Oscar Rios was elected to the Watsonville
City Council just after the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
struck down Watsonville’s discriminatory at-large election system
and implemented district elections in the landmark federal voting
rights case of Gomez v. City of Watsonville; and

WHEREAS, When Oscar Rios became Watsonville’s mayor in
1992, he also became the first mayor of any United States city of
Salvadorean descent, and quickly earned a reputation as an
energetic and accessible leader, and also became a founding
member of the Latino Caucus of the League of California Cities;
and

WHEREAS, Oscar Rios worked to build a successful partnership
with Watsonville’s local school district, resulting in the creation
of more parks and playgrounds, and also worked with
Watsonville’s business community to create hundreds of new jobs;
and

WHEREAS, Oscar Rios also led voter registration drives through
the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and worked
on numerous campaigns to get other Latinos elected to political
office, and continues to organize for Latino empowerment locally
and statewide; and

WHEREAS, Oscar Rios served 17 years on the Watsonville
City Council and is the longest serving Latino city councilmember
in the history of the County of Santa Cruz, having retired from the
council on December 11, 2012; and

WHEREAS, Oscar Rios continues to be employed as a Teamster
Union Business Agent for Local 890 in Salinas; and

WHEREAS, The City of Soledad is the “Gateway to the
Pinnacles,” located only five miles from Pinnacles National Park,
which became the nation’s 59th National Park on January 10, 2013,
by an act of Congress signed into law by President Barack Obama;
and

WHEREAS, The City of Soledad is also located near the Spanish
Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (the Mission of Our Lady
of Solitude), founded on October 9, 1791, as the 13th of 21
missions in California; and

WHEREAS, The City of Soledad is a great destination for
tourists, located in one of the primary wine grape growing regions
of California, with over 20 vineyards and wineries within a 30-mile
radius; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the
portion of State Highway Route 152 from Carlton Road to the
junction with State Highway Route 1 via Main Street, in the City
of Watsonville, as the Dolores Huerta Highway; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature hereby designates the portion of
State Highway Route 1 from the Pajaro River to Struve Road,
including the new Salinas Road overcrossing, in the County of
Monterey, as the Senator Henry J. Mello Highway; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature hereby designates the portion of
State Highway Route 129 from Blackburn Street to the junction
with State Highway Route 1 at Riverside Drive in the City of
Watsonville as the Oscar Rios Highway; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature hereby designates the portion of
State Highway Route 101 from Exit 305 at Camphora Gloria Road
to Exit 301 at Arroyo Seco Road in the County of Monterey as the
Gateway to the Pinnacles Highway; and be it further

Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested
to determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the
signing requirements for the state highway system for each of these
special designations and, upon receiving donations from nonstate
sources sufficient to cover the cost of the signs for which the
donations were made, to erect those signs; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author
for appropriate distribution.