Council Overrides Veto, Preserves Anti-Gang Program
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LOS ANGELES — The City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to override Mayor Richard Riordan’s veto of its decision to continue funding the controversial L.A Bridges anti-gang program.
The decision came one day after the council agreed to spend nearly $9 million next year on the initiative.
In a recent audit, City Controller Rick Tuttle found that Bridges is so poorly managed it was unclear whether it helped to keep young people out of gangs.
Riordan’s budget suggested funding the program through September to give the city time to come up with a new anti-gang program. Council members said they would rather fix Bridges.
“We have stepped up to the plate,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas told dozens of teenagers and other Bridges supporters who attended the council meeting.
The council fell one vote short of overriding another Riordan veto, this one on whether to put the city’s risk management functions into the newly created Department of Finance. Officials plan to revisit the issue next week.
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