Work Project Revived for Gangs : Teen-Age Crews to Clear City Canyons This Summer

A summer work program for gang members was revived by the San Diego City Council on Tuesday, just one day after the council had reluctantly killed funding for the project, citing the high cost of liability insurance.

The council voted 5-0 to alter its policy requiring the project’s organizers to obtain liability protection, which carried a price tag of up to $25,000 for the two-month program. The city will now assume liability in case of an accident.

Council members Uvaldo Martinez, Ed Struiksma, Mike Gotch and Judy McCarty were absent for the vote.

On Monday, the council had considered letting the Barrio Station, a Latino youth center, administer the program, but backed off when the center was unable to provide insurance.

The gang employment program, which was proposed in May by the San Diego Crime Commission and the Triple Crown Youth Coalition, will offer 50 teen-age gang members a summer job clearing hazardous brush from city-owned canyons.

“It will give the kids an honest hard day’s work and keep them out of the streets at night,” said Herman Collins, from the Triple Crown Youth Coalition, a nonprofit youth outreach program.

Volunteers from the California Conservation Council will train the youths--themselves volunteers for the project--in a three-day session this week. The youths, mostly black and Latino teen-agers from Southeast San Diego, will learn how to use brush hooks, axes and other equipment, Collins said.

They will work from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and earn minimum wage for seven weeks.

The federal Regional Employment and Training Consortium is funding salaries for the youths, Collins said.

The City Council allocated $23,000 to the program to pay the five adult supervisors and provide the youngsters with uniforms.

Providing liability insurance will not cost the city more than the allocated $23,000 unless an accident occurs, said John Lockwood, assistant city manager. In the event of an accident where the city is found at fault, the money would come from the city’s general fund, he said.

Councilwoman Gloria McColl, who spearheaded the drive for city funding, said Tuesday that she was pleased with the council’s action.

“This program is so beneficial for the young people and it is certainly beneficial to the City of San Diego for its safety and its beauty.”

McColl said that if the program is successful it could continue past the summer and provide after-school jobs to gang members.

The project seemed doomed because the organizers were not able to meet the liability insurance requirement. In an appeal on Monday, organizers and some gang members went to the City Council meeting with signs reading “Save Our Jobs.”

“We were so impressed with the young people appealing for jobs,” McColl said.

Sgt. John Madigan, of the San Diego Police Department’s gang detail, said there are more than 20 street gangs in the city with a combined membership of about 1,400.

Madigan said that the program is a good idea because the summer often leads to increased gang violence.

“I think that it is a real good start,” Madigan said. “Sometimes they will work with someone from an opposite gang, and they have to learn to get along with these people.”