BILL NUMBER: ACR 67 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 12, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Alejo
JUNE 24, 2013
Relative to highways.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 67, as amended, 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 John
Steinbeck 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, John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr., was born on February 27, 1902,
in Salinas, California, and is one of the most influential and
memorable American authors of the 20th century; and
WHEREAS, John Steinbeck's work has attracted people from around
the world to visit the central coast of California, the Monterey Bay,
and the Salinas Valley in which many of his works are set; and
WHEREAS, John Steinbeck has brought fame and honor to the United
States as a distinguished writer whose fiction is representative of
the vitality and unique qualities of the American people; and
WHEREAS, John Steinbeck's writing is known for its keen perception
of the times, which has helped shed light on some of the economic
and social problems of migrant workers in rural America; and
WHEREAS, John Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940,
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, and the United States Medal
of Freedom in 1964 for his cultural contributions as a novelist,
journalist, historian, and social commentator; and
WHEREAS, John Steinbeck's widely celebrated literary works include
16 novels, a collection of short stories, four screenplays, various
journalistic essays, three travel narratives, a translation, and two
published journals; 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 he
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 Seńora 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
1 from the Pajaro River to Struve Road, includin
g 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 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 Sala Road to John Street in the City of
Salinas as the John Steinbeck 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.