Windfall of Summer Jobs Leaves Youths, Officials Scrambling : Rebuilding: Program beginning Wednesday adds 12,000 positions for inner-city teen-agers. But many are upset over oath that requires applicants to say they have not been convicted of riot-related crimes.

Faced with the sudden availability of 12,000 additional summer jobs, Los Angeles officials are scrambling to sign up young people for the positions before the program begins Wednesday.

Their efforts have been hindered by the federal government’s late approval of the positions, which expanded the city’s federally funded youth job pool from 8,000 to 20,000 nine days before the start-up date.

Further complications could arise next week when applicants will be required to sign an oath that they have not been convicted of crimes related to the Los Angeles riots. Los Angeles officials, including Community Development Department administrators running the program, have objected to the federally mandated declarations, which they said could exclude some youths who are most in need of jobs this summer.

The new jobs were approved last week by Congress as part of a $500-million jobs package for the nation’s cities. President Bush signed the legislation Monday, nearly two months after riots swept across Los Angeles.

Despite concerns about the oath, local officials were concentrating Friday on publicizing the jobs program, which will more than double the number of positions available countywide for 14- to 21-year-olds, from 17,000 last year to 35,000 this year.

“These additional summer jobs are an important step by the federal government to address some of the issues underlying the recent disturbances in the city,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “Instead of our youth having nothing to do for this long, hot summer, more youngsters will have the opportunity to learn jobs skills that will serve them throughout their lives.”

Ridley-Thomas joined Mayor Tom Bradley at a downtown application center to promote the job program, which Bradley called “an unprecedented windfall of opportunity for our teen-agers.”

The Community Development Department also launched a campaign to promote the jobs through radio ads, billboards and television interviews.

Community development officials said they are thrilled to learn that funding for the program had been increased from $11 million to $27 million, enough to provide 20,000 jobs, instead of 8,000. But they said the short notice left them and applicants scrambling.

Jane Dawson, who coordinates the program for the Community Development Department, said many applicants would have to begin their $5.47 an hour jobs after the July 1 start-up date.

“We won’t have them all started, but we will keep processing them as fast as we can,” Dawson said. Outside her downtown office, dozens of teen-agers worked with counselors to fill out the extensive paperwork for the jobs, which requires verification that the applicant’s household is within the federal poverty income guidelines.

A supervisor at the South Los Angeles office said Friday that nearly 100 young people were lined up to fill out applications. The office had to send twice for more forms.

The Community Development Department shifted 60 employees from other assignments to help screen applications and supervise work programs.

Students have also had to rush their applications. The summer jobs program usually does not begin for a week or more after the end of school, but this year work begins on the first day of summer vacation.

“Usually the kids are used to having a few days or a week to kick back before they apply for jobs,” said Parker Anderson, general manager of the Community Development Department. “Now they don’t have the time.”

On Monday, the application procedure will be complicated by a new piece of paperwork--the two-paragraph declaration that requires applicants to state that they have not been convicted of a serious crime linked to the riots.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has interpreted the federal requirements to include all types of riot-related crimes except for curfew violations.

The federal law also requires participants to refund all of their pay if it is discovered that they have been convicted of a riot-related crime.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) was among the sponsors of an amendment that required the no-riot oath, federal officials said.

Los Angeles officials said they would like to have the requirement reversed, but that they are not hopeful because it was included in the legislation for the jobs program.

“What makes me furious about this is that we work with gang members,” Dawson said. “We usually recruit kids who have been in trouble so they can see another way of doing things. How else can they get ahead if they can’t get jobs?”

Teen-agers applying for the jobs Friday said they had not been involved in the rioting, but they also objected to the oath requirement and said those who had would simply lie on the form.

“I think that is kind of sad because there are people who were caught in the riots and they really didn’t do anything that bad,” said Silvino Ibarra, 17, of Boyle Heights Continuation High School. “And now they aren’t going to give them a job? That’s bad.

“That’s the whole point, isn’t it? To get kids of the street so they won’t get in more trouble.”

Anderson called the oath requirement “extremely onerous and discouraging to children” applying for the jobs, but said he hopes that it does not discourage anyone.

Applicants must have Social Security cards and be members of families with incomes within federal poverty guidelines. In the city of Los Angeles, applications can be made at eight community development field offices--in East Los Angeles, Echo Park, Wilmington, South-Central, Van Nuys, West Los Angeles and two downtown.

Other Los Angeles County communities received smaller funding increases than Los Angeles. Most are still taking applications, although Long Beach said it has qualified enough applicants for its program.

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