Bill Text: CA SCR78 | 2025-2026 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Detective Sergeant Ed Wilkinson, Deputy Sheriff Brent Jameson, and Deputy Sheriff Bliss Magly Memorial Overcrossing.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Passed) 2025-09-03 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Res. Chapter 163, Statutes of 2025. [SCR78 Detail]
Download: California-2025-SCR78-Chaptered.html
Senate Concurrent Resolution
No. 78
CHAPTER 163
Relative to the Detective Sergeant Ed Wilkinson, Deputy Sheriff Brent Jameson, and Deputy Sheriff Bliss Magly Memorial Overcrossing.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 03, 2025.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SCR 78, McGuire.
Detective Sergeant Ed Wilkinson, Deputy Sheriff Brent Jameson, and Deputy Sheriff Bliss Magly Memorial Overcrossing.
This measure would designate a specified overcrossing on State Route 101 as the Detective Sergeant Ed Wilkinson, Deputy Sheriff Brent Jameson, and Deputy Sheriff Bliss Magly Memorial Overcrossing. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources sufficient to cover the cost, to erect those signs.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee: YESBill Text
WHEREAS, Detective Sergeant Edward Francis Wilkinson was killed in the line of duty on April 17, 1977, while piloting the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter “Angel-1”; and
WHEREAS, Detective Sergeant Wilkinson was returning to the helicopter hangar at the Sonoma County Airport after searching for a missing nine-year-old girl when the helicopter ran out of fuel and crashed into a field on Barnes Road, approximately one-half mile south of River Road; and
WHEREAS, Detective Sergeant Wilkinson started the sheriff’s helicopter program and was its first pilot; and
WHEREAS, The helicopter program is still in existence and has been credited with saving many lives through its search and rescue, law enforcement, and medical air ambulance services; and
WHEREAS, Detective Sergeant Wilkinson was a 17-year veteran of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office; and
WHEREAS, The Wilkinson Valor Award was created in Detective Sergeant Wilkinson’s memory to honor fellow officers for acts of heroism and courage above and beyond the call of duty; and
WHEREAS, Deputy Sheriff Brent Charles Jameson and Deputy Sheriff Bliss Steven Magly were killed in the line of duty on October 23, 1980, when their Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, “Angel-2,” crashed and burned in heavy fog approximately one-half mile south of the Sonoma County Airport between River Road and Laughlin Road; and
WHEREAS, Deputy Jameson was piloting the aircraft, with Deputy Magly serving as observer, on a search mission for a shooting suspect in the area of Ludwig Avenue, east of Llano Road, between the Cities of Sebastopol and Santa Rosa; and
WHEREAS, Deputy Jameson had served with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office for six years and had previously served with the Novato Police Department for three years; and
WHEREAS, Deputy Magly had served with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office for three years; and
WHEREAS, In order to honor Deputy Jameson and Deputy Magly, scholarships were opened in their names at Santa Rosa Junior College to assist deserving criminal justice students; and
WHEREAS, The annual Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office awards banquet was started as a result of this tragedy as a way to properly recognize the outstanding work of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, and the first banquet was dedicated to Deputy Jameson and Deputy Magly; and
WHEREAS, Deputy Jameson and Deputy Magly were posthumously awarded Gold Medals of Valor; and
WHEREAS, Pioneered by Detective Sergeant Wilkinson in the 1960s, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter unit has since flown thousands of life-saving missions; and
WHEREAS, Today, the helicopter unit responds to an average of 1,000 missions annually and is one of the busiest single-aircraft rescue helicopter programs in the country; and
WHEREAS, Detective Sergeant Wilkinson, Deputy Jameson, and Deputy Magly are fondly remembered by friends, family, loved ones, and the broader County of Sonoma community; and
WHEREAS, The State of California and the people of the County of Sonoma honor their memories and those of all law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates overcrossing No. 20 0297 on State Route 101 at Airport Boulevard, at postmile 26.356, in the County of Sonoma as the Detective Sergeant Ed Wilkinson, Deputy Sheriff Brent Jameson, and Deputy Sheriff Bliss Magly Memorial Overcrossing; and be it further
Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the signage 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; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author for appropriate distribution.
