[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 4, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E17]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING GONZALO ``SAL'' TORRES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 4, 2017

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Sal Torres, a departing 
member of the City Council of Daly City and a friend who has never 
ceased to serve the people of his community with distinction during his 
twenty years on the council. Sal Torres has, during these past two 
decades, become the symbol of this prosperous town filled with 
talented, industrious residents from around the world.
  In 1996, Sal made history by becoming the first Latino to win a seat 
on the City Council of Daly City and, in 2000, became Daly City's first 
Mayor of Latino descent. This year he will be finishing his public 
service as Mayor.
  It is difficult to fully describe the impact of Mayor Torres upon 
Daly City, but it has been enormously beneficial. Over his 20 years in 
office, the city changed from a typical suburban community south of a 
major U.S. city, into a thriving commercial center with major new 
office buildings adjacent to a regional mass transit station. Sal was 
part of a team that evaluated and approved the rebuilding of Westlake 
Shopping Center into a modern, thriving retail hub. Today, this center 
is so essential to the constituents of Mayor Torres and to surrounding 
communities that it's probably easier to find a parking space in 
downtown Manhattan than in the garage and lots of Westlake Shopping 
Center.
  Social justice is a core belief of Mayor Torres. Long before his 
ascension to the council, he earned recognition during his 
undergraduate years at UCLA for his outstanding contributions as a 
volunteer in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Throughout all of 
1984, Sal worked with the Southwest Voter Registration & Education 
Project and helped to successfully register over 120,000 new Latino 
voters for the 1984 general election. He is still the only graduate in 
the history of the University of San Francisco School of Law to be 
awarded, in the same year, both the Judge Harold J. Haley Award given 
by the faculty for outstanding scholastic achievements and the Student 
Bar Association Award given by his peers for exceptional contributions 
made to and on behalf of the graduating class.
  Sal was a founding member of the non-profit Housing Endowment and 
Regional Trust (HEART) of San Mateo, a provider of affordable home 
loans to community residents, and an advocate for new construction of 
affordable housing. Daly City has always played a vital role in 
providing affordable housing in San Mateo County. Sal understands the 
linkage between human dignity and housing and between economic security 
and owning a home.
  Life is more than hard work and housing. If residents in north San 
Mateo wish to enjoy a summer afternoon, they can see a movie at a major 
metroplex that Sal shaped as part of a team that revitalized areas east 
of Highway 280. They can also play on city sports fields that he voted 
to support because he views recreation as vital to the physical and 
spiritual health of city residents.
  With all of these public accomplishments, one might reasonably wonder 
if Sal Torres had time to earn a living. He certainly did. As an 
accomplished attorney, he's worked on behalf of the California School 
Employees Association, Arysta Life Science Corporation, LSI Logic, 
Marvell Technology Group, and Equinix, Inc., among many clients. He 
also hosted and co-produced a popular talk show on the UPN-TV 
affiliate, KBHK Channel 44, El Amanecer (``Daybreak''), which addressed 
social, political and cultural issues in the Latino community. In 2000, 
Sal was selected as one of California's ``Top 20 Lawyers under the age 
of 40'' by California Law Business.
  At times through the year, the sun sets off the shoreline of Daly 
City and into the Pacific. It is a scene that is at once stunningly 
beautiful and yet a brutal reminder that we are transitory figures in 
history. Sal Torres has never been a public servant who sought 
immortality through public works with his name in concrete, nor has he 
been a flamboyant personality in the city's life.
  However, as a humble servant of his community, he has shown a 
relentless dedication to public wellbeing. Whereas the Pacific erodes 
the city's cliffs and the freeway divides its corpus, Sal built its 
community spirit through a dedication to collegiality that created 
lasting bonds, and a love of Daly City by its residents, equal in 
strength to any steel and certainly more enduring than the boundary of 
the city with the sea. Sal will be missed at the dais, but ever-present 
in the hearts and minds of his community. In the end, this is a 
monument that is far more enduring than a name in concrete. Sal Torres 
loves Daly City, and Daly City treasures Sal Torres.

                          ____________________