Panel Urges Reprieve for Anti-Gang Effort
Contrary to the wishes of Mayor Richard Riordan, a City Council committee Monday recommended that the city continue funding the problem-plagued L.A. Bridges program, an anti-gang initiative, for fiscal 2000-2001. The panel said staff members should be given a chance to correct the program’s deficiencies.
Members of the City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Gangs and Juvenile Justice agreed that it would be better to fix Bridges instead of scrapping the program and starting a new anti-gang effort, as Riordan has suggested. The council is set to consider the committee’s recommendation Wednesday.
“No one wants to fund programs that are not working,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who heads the committee. “We think Bridges is beginning to work. . . . We need to improve those things that are in need of improvement and embellish those things that are already working positively.”
A recent audit by City Controller Rick Tuttle found that Bridges--which provides after-school programs and counseling to nearly 7,000 students--is so poorly operated that it should be shut down and overhauled. The city has spent more than $28 million on the anti-gang program since it was started in 1997.
In his proposed budget released last week, Riordan recommended that the city fund L.A. Bridges through September and then start a new initiative.
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