BILL NUMBER: ACR 67INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Alejo JUNE 24, 2013 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 Csar Chvez, 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 Seora 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.