BILL ANALYSIS �
SCR 115
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Date of Hearing: August 18, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
SCR 115 (Lara) - As Amended: May 12, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 32-0
SUBJECT : Senator Jenny Oropeza Memorial Freeway
SUMMARY : Designates a specific portion of State Route (SR) 710
in the City of Long Beach as the "Senator Jenny Oropeza Memorial
Highway." Specifically, this bill :
1)Recounts the lifetime accomplishments of Senator Jenny
Oropeza, a distinguished elected official and decorated
community leader.
2)Designates a portion of SR 710 between Pico Avenue and the
Pacific Coast Highway (SR 1) in the City of Long Beach as the
Senator Jenny Oropeza Memorial Highway.
3)Requests that the California Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) 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 non-state sources covering 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 : Costs to make and erect the appropriate signs
are covered by donations.
COMMENTS : Senator Jenny Oropeza was born in 1957 in Montebello,
California, the oldest of three children of Victor and Sharon
Oropeza. Her father, the son of Mexican immigrants, was an
accomplished Impressionist painter. Senator Oropeza attended
Cal State Long Beach, where she was elected student body
president and received her degree in business.
Senator Oropeza was elected to the Long Beach school board in
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1988 and then became the first Latino elected to the Long Beach
City Council in 1994. In 2000, she won a seat in the state
Assembly, where she served as chairwoman of the Assembly Budget
Committee. Senator Oropeza was elected to the state Senate in
2006 and served as chairwoman of the Senate Majority Caucus as
well as the Revenue and Taxation Committee. She also served as
a member of the Appropriations; Transportation; and Elections,
Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments committees.
Senator Oropeza died on October 20, 2010, less than two weeks
before the November election in which she posthumously won
reelection to the state Senate.
Since her death, Senator Oropeza has been recognized in numerous
ways. The Democratic Women's Study Club in Long Beach
posthumously awarded her the Political Leadership Award, and
since has named it the Jenny Oropeza Political Leadership Award.
The Long Beach Community Hispanic Association (Centro CHA)
named an award the Create Change: Jenny Oropeza Community
Service Excellence Award after the late senator. The City of
Long Beach named the community center in Cesar E. Chavez Park
the Jenny Oropeza Community Center, and the Los Angeles Unified
School District dedicated the Jenny Oropeza Global Studies
Academy at the Rancho Dominguez Preparatory School to the late
senator. This bill designating a specific portion of SR 710 in
honor of Jenny Oropeza acknowledges the significant role Senator
Oropeza played in her community and for the state of California.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093