BILL ANALYSIS
ACR 146
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 12, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
ACR 146 (Hayashi) - As Introduced: March 16, 2010
SUBJECT : State Route 580
SUMMARY : Designates a bridge on State Route (SR) 580 as the
Sergeant Mark Dunakin, Sergeant Ervin Romans, and Officer John
Hege Memorial Bridge. Specifically, this bill :
1)Recounts the lives and careers of the Sergeant Mark Dunakin,
Sergeant Ervin Romans, and Officer John Hege, members of the
Oakland Police Department who lost their lives in the line of
duty.
2)Designates the Keller Avenue Bridge that crosses SR 580 as the
Sergeant Mark Dunakin, Sergeant Ervin Romans, and Officer John
Hege Memorial Bridge.
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
this special designation and, upon receiving donations from
nonstate sources sufficient to cover that cost, to erect those
signs.
EXISTING LAW : Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating
and maintaining state highways. This includes the installation
and maintenance of highway signs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Mark Dunakin began his career with the Oakland Police
Department in May 1991. During his career, he was assigned to
several units of the department, including the Patrol Division,
the Crime Prevention Unit, the Robbery Section, and the Homicide
Unit. In 1999, Sergeant Dunakin was promoted to the rank of
Sergeant of Police. While serving in the Homicide Unit,
Sergeant Dunakin acted as one of the lead investigators of the
"Nut Cases" gang, a group that terrorized Oakland in a 10-week
crime wave in 2002 and 2003. Sergeant Dunakin's tireless work
paid off when the gang was successfully arrested.
ACR 146
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Ervin Romans started his career with the Oakland Police
Department in 1996. Sergeant Romans' sense of duty and
commitment to the department never wavered; in 1999, he received
the Medal of Valor, the department's highest honor, for
evacuating endangered residents from a fire in West Oakland.
Sergeant Romans' expertise and attention to detail served the
City of Oakland well when he become a Departmental Range Master,
a position in which he trained hundreds of officers in the
ethical and proper use of firearms and less lethal weapons. In
2005, Sergeant Romans was promoted to the rank of Sergeant of
Police. As a sergeant, he supervised one of Oakland's crime
reduction teams and served as the entry team leader on the
department's Tactical Operations Team.
John Hege started his career with the Oakland Police Department
as a volunteer reserve police officer in 1993. He was hired as a
full-time police officer in 1999. Upon graduating from the
Oakland Police Academy, he was assigned to the Bureau of Field
Operations. After patrolling the streets of Oakland for 10
years, Officer Hege fulfilled a lifelong dream when he was
transferred to the Traffic Operations Section and assigned as a
motorcycle officer. Officer Hege gave his heart, soul, and a
seemingly limitless amount of time to the Oakland Police
Department, yet he always made time for his family and friends.
On March 21, 2009, Sergeant Dunakin was shot and killed and
Officer Hege was mortally wounded during a traffic stop.
Efforts to apprehend the suspect resulted in the death of
Sergeant Romans.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None received
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093