Angered at proposed cut, Delgadillo questions mayor’s vow to fight gangs

Signaling an escalation in tensions between two of Los Angeles’ top elected officials, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo on Friday criticized Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s budget for the next fiscal year, calling a proposed spending cut for Delgadillo’s office a step backward in the fight against gang violence.

Delgadillo fumed that the mayor’s budget proposal, released Thursday, cut funding for 13 prosecutors and authorized but did not provide money for seven new gang prosecutors that the city attorney had sought.

“Adding more police and slashing prosecutors is like building schools and cutting teachers. It just won’t work,” Delgadillo said, referring to the mayor’s plan to add substantially to the Police Department.

“And if anyone should understand that, the mayor should understand that,” Delgadillo said at an afternoon news conference in his office.

The mayor’s office said the city attorney is free to carry out the proposed 1.5% cut of his $96.4-million budget any way he chooses and can add gang prosecutors by trimming other costs.

Delgadillo’s remarks highlighted what has been a behind-the-scenes rivalry between City Hall’s two top Latino politicians.

In appealing Friday to the City Council to reject the mayor’s proposed cuts, Delgadillo set up a showdown with Villaraigosa.

But the city attorney tried to sidestep taking on the powerful mayor directly, blaming “the mayor’s budget people” for the cuts. Delgadillo said he was inspired when Villaraigosa announced a plan Wednesday to spend $168 million on a new gang suppression, intervention and prevention program.

“But the reality of this budget doesn’t match the rhetoric of the mayor’s gang plan. That’s why I am deeply troubled,” Delgadillo said. “Unfortunately, the mayor’s budget people are taking us backward in our fight against gangs.”

Less than an hour later, Villaraigosa shot back during an appearance on KPCC-FM (89.3), where he was asked about Delgadillo’s remarks.

“That’s too bad that he would talk that way. He knows better than that,” Villaraigosa told radio host and Times columnist Patt Morrison. “What he has is the authority to assign attorneys from other jobs in the city attorney’s office to carry out those [gang] functions. He knows that.

“Now if he chooses to take them out of gangs, well, obviously it’s a reflection of his priorities. I would hope that’s not where we are going.”

One mayoral aide, who along with a council deputy was prevented from attending the city attorney’s news conference, said Villaraigosa asked all department heads to find savings in their budgets.

“We believe it is completely reasonable to expect the city attorney to effectively manage a $2-million budget reduction in a nearly $100-million budget without jeopardizing public safety,” said Matt Szabo, a spokesman for the mayor.

Delgadillo and Villaraigosa have clashed in the past, although usually less bluntly and away from the public eye.

When Villaraigosa ran for City Council in 2003, Delgadillo supported incumbent Nick Pacheco. Villaraigosa won the election and persuaded the City Council to exercise greater control over Delgadillo’s contracts with outside law firms.

Delgadillo also refused to endorse Villaraigosa when he ran successfully for mayor in 2005.

In December, Villaraigosa vetoed a $2.7-million settlement negotiated by the city attorney’s office to resolve a lawsuit by a firefighter who said his dog food-laced spaghetti was part of a pattern of harassment and discrimination by colleagues.

Villaraigosa’s gang plan also drew some challenges from community activists and elected officials at a council hearing Friday, particularly for its call to conduct evaluations to focus on eight gang-reduction zones.

“I just think it’s a waste of effort to reevaluate every community in these zones to see what they need,” Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. “I think it’s clear that it’s prevention, intervention, after-school” programs.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com