Riordan Frees Up Funds for Hope in Youth : Activism: Mayor releases $2.5 million for the gang intervention program. At meeting with community groups, he pledges to bring life to a series of projects.

And on the 18th day, Mayor Richard Riordan sat on the hot seat.

Then he tried to show 2,500 volunteers from the city’s four largest community organizations that Riordan, the mayor, will keep promises made by Riordan, the candidate. In a sweltering high school gymnasium on Los Angeles’ Eastside, he signed papers Sunday that unfettered $2.5 million in city funds for Hope in Youth, a gang intervention program.

The money, which had been snagged in red tape since the City Council approved it last year, will go to train 160 outreach teams to assist families whose children are in gangs or at risk of joining them. The program, a pet project of a coalition of nine religious leaders--including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Riordan’s close friend--will begin training the volunteers starting in September, organizers said.

On his third weekend on the job, Riordan arrived at Bishop Mora Salesian High School and stepped under a banner that stated the afternoon’s theme in English and Spanish: “Promises Made, Promises to Keep. Promesas Hechas.”

He kept one pledge simply by meeting with the community group--and earned a polite round of applause. But the crowd rose to its feet when Riordan signed the documents freeing up funding for Hope in Youth, which had been unable to win support from former Mayor Tom Bradley.

The program has been backed not only by the religious leaders, but by the four community organizations: The East L.A.-based United Neighborhoods Assn., South-Central’s Southern California Organizing Committee, the East Valleys Organization, from the San Gabriel Valley, and the Valley Organized in Community Efforts, of the San Fernando Valley.

The stomping, clapping, chanting crowd brought the flavor of a political convention to the gym as volunteers sat under banners proclaiming their affiliations.

They let Riordan know early and often that they were keeping score. Literally. They had erected a large score card of “Promises Made,” and the mayor’s performance Sunday earned him a straight line of check marks. For now.

“We are here today to test the mettle of those who were elected,” said the Rev. Reuben Anderson of the Southern California Organizing Committee. “We insist (that) the promises made will be kept.”

Riordan also announced steps to help bring to life a series of projects from the west San Fernando Valley to the Eastside.

He said he had appointed Deputy Mayor Rae Franklin James to work with the groups to find ways to fund the 1,000-unit Nehemia West townhouse and condominium project on Gage Avenue in Bell Gardens. He said Deputy Mayor William C. Violante would meet with the community leaders to discuss strategies to beef up fire code enforcement and police patrols in minority neighborhoods and the San Fernando Valley.

Riordan agreed to meet with representatives of of the organizations to review the city’s job training programs and discuss whether the money is being spent effectively. He committed to building a Food4Less supermarket at Vermont and West Adams avenues, south of the Santa Monica Freeway. And he said he would work with VOICE on a model program to make the west San Fernando Valley a graffiti-free zone.

But the big winner was the Hope in Youth program.

Besides releasing the $2.5 million in city money, Riordan vowed to lobby two county supervisors to free $2.9 million in county funds promised last year but never delivered.

State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) told the crowd that the program also should receive $2 million in state money by the end of August.

“We’re on the right track,” Riordan said, telling the crowd he would “share power and credit with each and every one of you.”

“We made great progress today,” agreed the SCOC’s Anderson. “We got some serious business accomplished.”