District 1 - Supervisor Luis Alejo

Supervisor Luis Alejo was elected in June 2016 to represent District 1, which includes most of the City of Salinas, including the Alisal, parts Central and North Salinas, Chinatown and Oldtown Salinas.

Alejo is a proud son of migrant farmworkers and of a Vietnam-era veteran of the United States Army. His family originally came to work in the Salinas, Pajaro, Santa Clara and Central Valleys as migrant farmworkers in the 1950s. His grandparents were one of the early families to join the Farmworker Rights Movement with labor leader Cesar Chavez in 1969 when he first came to Salinas and Watsonville.

Alejo is a former high school teacher who graduated with honors from UC Berkeley, receiving dual bachelor’s degrees in political science and Chicano Studies. He continued his education at UC Davis School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.)., and later Harvard University, where he finished his academic career in 2003 by obtaining his Masters of Education degree (Ed.M) in Administration, Planning and Social Policy. He then worked as a graduate research assistant for the Harvard Civil Rights Project under Professors Gary Orfield and Patricia Gandara in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

After finishing his graduate studies, Alejo began his legal career by championing the rights of working families as a staff attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) in Watsonville where he represented farmworkers, immigrants, women, students and other working families. He later worked as a staff attorney the Monterey County Superior Court where he provided free legal assistance to thousands of self-represented litigants in family and civil law, including assisting hundreds of victims of domestic violence with obtaining temporary restraining orders.

Alejo would later pursue politics and served as Mayor and Vice-Mayor of his hometown of Watsonville. Alejo was first elected to the State Assembly in November 2010 at the age of 36 to represent the 28th Assembly District, which consisted of San Benito, Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties. He became the youngest legislator to represent the Monterey Bay region in Sacramento. In November 2012, he was re-elected to the Assembly as the representative of the newly formed 30th Assembly District.

Alejo rose to serve in leadership roles at the State Capitol as the Chair of the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials (ESTM) Committee, the Chair of the powerful California Latino Legislative Caucus and the Vice-Chair of the Assembly Local Government Committee. He also served on the Assembly Budget, Budget Subcommittee #4 (Public Safety), Judiciary, Rules, Governmental Organization, Labor and Employment and Veteran Affairs Committees during his tenure in Sacramento.

Alejo authored numerous landmark pieces of legislation, including the bill to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain valid California drivers licenses (AB60), to raise the minimum wage to the highest level in the country (AB10), and to create the first statewide ethnic studies model curriculum in the nation (AB2016). Over the six years in the Assembly, 78 of his bills were signed by Governor Jerry Brown and 18 resolutions were approved by the legislature. As a result of his work, Alejo was ranked "2013 Most Effective Democratic Assemblymember" by the Around The Capitol Nooner and was awarded the "2015 Legislator of the Year" by the California League of Cities.

As a county supervisor, Alejo has led on championing immigrant and civil rights, broadband, housing, homelessness, economic development, clean drinking water, water infrastructure, access to justice/courts, ethnic studies for California schools, cannabis, youth leadership, the Salinas Soccer Complex, the 2020 Census, environmental and coastal protection, veteran and military affairs, expanding healthcare access to low-income families, disaster relief in Pajaro and helping save Watsonville Community Hospital. He also authored the first county resolutions in the country recognizing the human right to water, becoming a Dreamers County and a Welcoming County for immigrants.

Supervisor Alejo currently serves on the following county committees:

• Chair, Economic Development Committee
• Chair, Homelessness Committee
• Chair, Alternative Energy and Environment Committee
• Chair, Equal Opportunity Committee
• Legislative Committee
• Workforce Development Board
• Behavioral Health Commission
• Military and Veterans Affairs Commission
• Salinas City/County Ad Hoc Committee

He also serves on Board of Directors for the Transportation Agency of Monterey County (TAMC), Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) and the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency (PRFMA). In addition, he serves as the Chair of Lead Me Home Leadership Council (Continuum of Care), the cochair of the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace (CASP).

Outside of his county responsibilities, Alejo also serves on Executive Board of the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), the National Association of Counties (NACO) Telecommunications and Technology Policy Committee and as Vice-Chair of the NACO Immigration Task Force. Alejo is also a Past President of the Latino Caucus of California Counties. In 2023, State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon appointed Alejo to serve as the first local government representative on the California Broadband Middle Mile Advisory Committee that aims to close the digital divide once and for all in California.

District 1 - Supervisor Luis Alejo
168 West Alisal St., 2nd Floor,
Salinas, CA 93901
Phone: (831)755-5011
Fax: (831)755-5876
District1@countyofmonterey.gov

STAFF:

Linda Gonzalez - Chief of Staff
Jasmine Mejia Cortez - Executive Assistant
Javier Gomez - Legislative Assistant/Policy Analyst

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