 After serving as the liaison for three years, then Mayor Janet Gray Hayes appointed Delgado as a commissioner in 1976, when he was 18.Hayes also appointed Delgado to the San Jose Bicentennial Commission, which planned and organized the city's events in celebration of the American Revolution Bicentennial in 1976.As a commissioner, he participated in the first inventory of historical and architectural heritage in 1977, and then the Santa Clara County Heritage Inventory.