Team Effort to Save Youth : Speech: In Santa Ana appearance, President urges cities and private sector to unite to give teens positive alternatives to crime and drugs.

President Clinton, flanked by professional basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and 15 of this community’s federally funded “Clinton cops,” called on cities and the private sector Friday to play a key role in saving the nation’s youth from crime and drugs.

The speech, to more than 3,000 flag-waving schoolchildren, teens and community leaders at the Santa Ana Boys & Girls Club, came as the Taco Bell Foundation pledged to raise $15 million to bolster Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide and build 100 new teen centers for the organization to run--the first at the club where Clinton spoke.

“When I went to Washington, I made a promise to myself that I would do everything I can to put more police on our streets, to get more guns and drugs off our streets, to give our kids a chance to be in positive situations and out of gangs,” Clinton told the cheering crowd of mostly young people.

“What we are really here celebrating today is the kind of partnership that makes that possible,” Clinton said. He praised the efforts of officials from Santa Ana, Irvine-based Taco Bell and the Boys & Girls Clubs, along with those of police officers and celebrities such as O’Neal, in helping to fight crime and steer kids away from trouble.

Orlando Magic center O’Neal will act as a spokesman for Taco Bell’s TEENSupreme program, along with Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon, who was expected at the Santa Ana event but had to cancel his appearance.

The President joined O’Neal and Taco Bell Corp. President Ken Stevens in presenting a $1-million check to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to launch the program.

“I can see the headline tomorrow,” Clinton joked. “ ‘Shaquille O’Neal visits Santa Ana. President also shows up.’ ”

Clinton used his stop in Orange County to highlight the crime-stopping efforts of his Administration, including the ban on assault weapons; the federal “three-strikes” law; the Brady law, which requires background checks for the purchase of handguns; and his crime bill, which has put 25,000 more police officers in neighborhoods across America.

But the theme of his visit to the gang-plagued Santa Ana neighborhood, home to more than 26,000 children in a single square mile, was to stress the need for role models and clubs that provide recreation, educational opportunity and a path away from gangs to the nation’s youth.

The central Santa Ana neighborhood has the largest concentration of children in California and the second-largest in the nation, according to the U.S. Census.

“We have to do something about gangs and violence. We have to do something about our children being given up too young and too easily, and we know what to do,” Clinton said.

Members of the Boys & Girls Club had worked frantically over the past few days to prepare for Clinton’s visit, setting up bleachers, cleaning up the club and preparing for the influx of students.

The smaller children sported handmade paper visors in miniature red, white and blue flags, and paper doves they waved for the President; some wore ties or white gloves and their best dresses. A few of the older teens gave Clinton points for even coming to their neighborhood.

“I think it’s good that he’s paying attention to the youth,” said Maria Alvarado, 17, of Saddleback High School. “It’s about time.”

Clinton’s speech followed an address by Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr., who outlined the city’s efforts to reduce crime with the help of federal and state dollars, Stevens’ announcement about the TEENSupreme program and a brief but wildly cheered message of hope from O’Neal.

“Follow your dreams. Never give up, and stay out of trouble,” said the 7-foot, 1-inch O’Neal, hunched over the podium in a blue and white sweat suit. He then urged the audience to bark out a cheer of “Bill! Bill! Bill!”

Boys & Girls Clubs’ national Youth of the Year, 18-year-old Jason Reese from Morristown, Tenn., introduced Clinton as a onetime member of the Hot Springs, Ark., Boys & Girls Club. Clinton is also the organization’s honorary chairman.

But Clinton also used his visit to Republican-rich Orange County to attack GOP plans to cut the budget. Pointing to the federally funded officers seated on the stage behind him, Clinton warned that the community policing program they have launched could be threatened by the Republican Congress.

“If the U.S. Congress were going to reduce the national defense of this country to the point where you felt insecure and in danger, people would be outraged,” Clinton told the audience, as many of the smaller children sat wilting on the grass in the midday heat, their arms drooped through the security bars separating them from the stage.

Clinton, who also made stops Friday in Los Angeles and San Diego, had landed at the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station about 10:30 a.m. At the Boys & Girls Club, the President met with representatives of more than a dozen police officers associations, and then returned to the air base for gatherings with business, education and community leaders on his way out.

Those who greeted him there represented both major parties, including Howard Adler, former chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party; Larry Higby, president of Unocal Products; Milton A. Gordon, president of Cal State Fullerton; and Jack W. Peltason, president of the University of California.

Clinton left the air station about 2:30 p.m. after shaking hands with about 150 service personnel and their families, as well as the CHP motorcycle squad that had escorted him throughout the day.

Not only did Clinton tread deep into Republican country with the visit, his stop in Santa Ana also was in the heart of the congressional district represented by perhaps his most vocal public critic: Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

Dornan, who is seeking the GOP’s 1996 presidential nomination, was dismissive of Clinton’s attempts to reach out to youths seeking guidance.

“Most of those street-smart gang members know that Clinton smoked marijuana and was sexually promiscuous,” Dornan said. “How can he give advice [to youths] without ever having apologized for that?”

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) called Clinton’s announcement of an aid package for Los Angeles County on the same day of his visit to Orange County a “political blunder.”

“The legislative package in Sacramento linked Los Angeles and Orange counties together,” Cox said. “The President rather pointedly ignored Orange County by explicitly disconnecting the two and treating only Los Angeles County.”

But on the grounds of Santa Ana’s Boys & Girls Club, Clinton was decidedly more popular.

Adults who managed to get inside the club and peek at the President said they were just happy he came and hoped he got a good look at the neighborhood.

Alicia Vargas, 48, lives three doors down from the club. She sat through the ceremony but didn’t understand much because she speaks little English, she said.

“We wanted him to see the poverty that we live in here,” she said. “There aren’t enough jobs and the salaries are too low. There aren’t enough health services for our community and they’re cutting nurses. . . . I really like the fact that he came to see this place.”

Jose Gonzalez, 17, and his friend Brandy Hernandez, 18, jumped up and down squealing, “We love you, Billy!” as Clinton stepped toward the crowd after his speech.

“It was nice that he took the time to come down instead of going to Beverly Hills High,” said Hernandez, who shook the President’s hand. She also gave Taco Bell a big thanks for “doing a lot for the Hispanic community.”

The Santa Ana Boys & Girls Club will receive $22,000 a year for three years from the Taco Bell Foundation, Taco Bell spokeswoman Amy Sherwood said.

“It’s just awesome,” said Santa Ana City Councilman Robert L. Richardson, who is also vice president of the club’s board of directors. “It’s just going to enable us to do that much more programming.”

Executives of Taco Bell, the nation’s largest Mexican-style fast-food restaurant chain, said the company already has installed collection canisters in restaurants across the country to raise $14 million more for the program over the next six years.

Santa Ana was chosen for TEENSupreme’s pilot program in part because the needy neighborhood is in the Irvine-based corporation’s back yard.

“This is our community and close to where a lot of our employees work and live,” said Stevens, a Boys & Girls Club member from his own youth. “There is a need here in Santa Ana. Gang violence is prevalent and it was important for us to do something in the community.”

Times staff writers Greg Hernandez, Greg Johnson, Gebe Martinez and Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.

PRAISE FROM POLICE: Police groups meet with Clinton, applaud his policies. A19

CPR FOR L.A. COUNTY: President makes health care system bailout official. A33