BILL ANALYSIS Ó
ACR 97
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Date of Hearing: March 24, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
ACR 97 (Bigelow) - As Introduced: February 13, 2014
SUBJECT : Memorial Highway Naming
SUMMARY : Names a State Route (SR) 50 overcrossing in El Dorado
County as the Staff Sergeant Sky R. Mote Memorial Overcrossing.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Recounts the life of Staff Sergeant Mote.
2)Designates the overcrossing that spans SR 50 at Ray Lawler
Drive in El Dorado County as the Staff Sergeant Sky R. Mote
Memorial Overcrossing.
3)Requests the California Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) to determine the cost of appropriate signs,
consistent with the signing requirements for a state highway
system, showing the special designation and, upon receiving
donations from non-state sources covering that cost, to erect
those signs.
EXISTING LAW : Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating
and maintaining state highways including installation and
maintenance of highway signs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Costs to make and erect appropriate signs are
covered by donations.
COMMENTS : Staff Sergeant Mote, was born in Bishop, California
to Russell and Cindy Mote. He moved to El Dorado County,
California as a young boy where he was raised by his father and
his father's new wife, Marcia. Growing up in El Dorado County,
Staff Sergeant Mote enjoyed raising pigs for 4-H, camping with
his family, and shoeing horses. From an early age Staff
Sergeant Mote wanted to join the military, motivated by his love
of airplanes.
Staff Sergeant Mote graduated from Union Mine High School in El
Dorado County in 2003, and thereafter joined the Marines. He
was deployed to Iraq as a bomb-disposal specialist and was twice
deployed to Afghanistan to work with the Marines Special Forces.
ACR 97
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While deployed to Afghanistan with the 1st Marine Special
Operations Battalion, on August 10, 2012, the battalion received
heavy fire from an Afghan uniformed police officer who was
attacking from within a tactical operations center. During the
attack, Staff Sergeant Mote boldly remained in the open and
engaged the shooter to safeguard his fellow Marines. Staff
Sergeant Mote, who was killed in the attack, received the Navy
Cross, a Purple Heart, a Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal, a
Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal, two Combat Action Ribbons,
and three Good Conduct medals.
Staff Sergeant Mote is survived by his four brothers: Timothy,
age 37, an Army soldier in Fort Polk, Louisiana; Erick, Age 30,
of Bozeman, Montana; Tyson, age 28, of San Francisco,
California; and Carson, age 17, a high school student in El
Dorado Hills.
This resolution designates the overcrossing that spans SR 50 at
Ray Lawler Drive in El Dorado County as the Staff Sergeant Sky
R. Mote Memorial Overcrossing. This resolution further requests
that Caltrans erect appropriate signs upon receiving donations
from non-state sources to cover the cost.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Police Chiefs Association
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Victoria Alvarez / TRANS. / (916) 319-
2093