multi agency dealing with it to being executive director for the entire state, california graffiti association of california. so i have a fair amount of background. i first became involved in graffiti back in 1991 when i was told in the gang unit that i was going to be a two-week assignment to deal with these guys called taggers. i continued until i retired so it was a long two weeks. a lot of times cities don't understand how deep the issue goes. i have had my card handed out, this is my phone number. i have absolutely no problem with people calling me any time to discuss graffiti issues, graffiti cases, any of that stuff, i am always available. that's why i put my card out there. so first off, before we get into the graffiti part we have to talk about the person whos going to be dealing with graffiti when he goes to court. personnel and training are the two keys to success in any detail, we're going to talk specifically about graffiti but in any assignment as a police officer. when we hire on a police officer we look for 3 things besides integrity, we look for the ability to do the job, the

association, merchant association, but they also work hard with the corporate sponsors to make sure that they are committed to our neighborhoods, to making sure that they are clean, that the graffitithe dumping is taken away, that we have vibrant commercial corridors, vibrant commercial -- vibrant neighborhoods, and i couldn't be more pleased that she is the most important city employee for this year in empowering neighborhoods. i will also bring up a woman by the name of fran martin to come speak about sandra. (applause) >> my name is fran martin. i'm with the visitacion valley planning alliance and greenway project. i'm very proud and have the honor on behalf of many people in the city who nominated sandra for this award. i can't think of a better person for people from communities, from foundations, from the city staff have voted for this. and i can't think of a better person. sandra's always gone above and beyond the call of duty. she -- she's in charge of the street parks program and i'm involved with that kind of work in the city. she's also involved with the clean streets program. and she's also -- a lot of people don't know this -- a board member of the american community