my name is maria cordero and i am the contract monitoring division. i'm serving in the capacity of the director. i would like to welcome you to the 2014 international women's day celebration that is being given by our business development group, contract monitoring division business development group. about you a year, a little over a year ago, am i jones came and pitched -- yea! (applause) >> came and pitched a program to me and her idea was to take a group of local businesses ~ and train them, call them the business development group and train them at -- not only train them on the city bidding process, but expect them to participate at a high level and hopefully dedicate their business to city projects. that was a little bit over a year ago as i mentioned, and it's been very successful. my question to her at the time was, how about resources? and she said, what resources? we have the whole city. and immediately we started making calls and you guys were amazing. the city departments came through. in fact, a lot of you said, oh, my gosh, that's a grea

maria cordero. pat jai ~ patty jo rutland. the person that we're getting ready to honor is one of our own, and i say our own, from my community, the african-american community. kimberly brandon is an outstanding, strong woman who has advocated even against odds when it come to local business development and contract opportunities for those businesses. she has sat at the port of san francisco in the meetings and had required staff to report to her and how the participation is going. she e-mails me. she communicates with me about what is going on at the port, what is her intent and how she's going to make it better for local business. i agree with her. and she's a fearless fighter. i personally want to thank commissioner brandon for all her work, her dedication, her support, her love for the local business community. she's our champion. she has been there more than 16 years. seemed like -- yeah. [laughter] >> but she's been working that hard and there's been a major change at the port. the attitude, the open inclusion, inviting

maria cordero, the director. she and i have worked together as a team for so many years, we think together. what i can't do, she did you. don't worry, i'll get it done. i'm like, okay, and it's done. so, i want to thank you. yeah. naomi kelly, some people say, oh, that's your child. [laughter] >> no. but i have to admit, her mother would not agree with that. she's more than that. she's a wonderful young leader of this city who is doing wonderful great things for our city. her presence in the chief administrative office has made a difference. i'm very proud of her. she was a great protege colleague, now she's the boss. i love her as a boss. yeah, you do that job well. (applause) >> thank you for your help. never -- any time i call her, text her, whatever, i get a quick response. and that's good. so, thank you. i want to thank you all again for coming. have some food, drink some coffee, celebrate. enjoy the women. (applause) 1Ñ/]blÑ)çqqsqll