Environmental Programs Division: Fessie Aguilera, Glenn Timmons, Antonio Lopez
Information Technology Division: John Halaka, James Meyer, Paul Lam
Nominated by: Ari Telias and Rene Melendez
The Graffiti Abatement Referral System (GARS), winner of the 2006 American Public Works Award (APWA), has served to increase
responsiveness to the needs of the community by quickly and accurately dispatching and referring graffiti abatement requests to
contractors and other agencies and has eliminated volumes of paperwork. GARS uses a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS)
database to quickly determine which agency is responsible and emails the appropriate agency.
GARS implementation has afforded Dispatch more time to deal with the incoming calls not related to graffiti removal that they handle
everyday for unincorporated County residents. GARS became a reality thanks to the cooperation of the Department's Information Technology
Division (ITD) and Environmental Programs Division (EPD) to devise a web-based solution to the tedious task of documenting and performing
the "zero-tolerance" policy more effectively, efficiently, and promptly. With the abundance of graffiti related calls coming into
Dispatch, the labor savings to Dispatch will be equivalent to around $50,000 a year and the labor savings to the staff of the Graffiti
Section is estimated at $75,000 for a combined savings of $125,000.
For its outstanding service excellence, organizational effectiveness, and fiscal responsibility, we are pleased to present the
Graffiti Abatement Referral System with an E-Government Project of the Year Award.
For more information visit GARS.
