COUNCIL SETTLES `BRIDGES' DISPUTE : $2 MILLION TO WIDEN ANTI-GANG PROGRAM.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council overcame territorial squabbling Wednesday over how to split up $9.1 million in gang-prevention money by finding $2 million more to expand the program to more schools.

In a lively debate that lasted nearly two hours, some council members charged that the 18 schools originally proposed for the L.A. Bridges program were unfairly selected based on political considerations - not on the basis of where the gang problems were worst.

``We have to deal with the reality that this process has been politically tampered with to satisfy those who had a position in the process,'' complained Councilman Richard Alarcon, who was part of an unsuccessful effort to keep the program in committee for revision.

To prevent the four-year program from being delayed from its July 1, 1997, start-up date, the council voted 10-4 to approve a compromise in which the council asked the Los Angeles Police Department and school district police to recommend by Oct. 30 seven additional schools with gang problems that justify inclusion in the L.A. Bridges program.

Depending on what criteria are used to select the additional seven schools to participate in the program, the number of schools in the San Fernando Valley could double from three to six.

``Unquestionably, we're facing a real crisis in our community and we need to move forward,'' said Councilman Hal Bernson in backing compromise.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who chaired the council committee that designated the 18 schools, said the program approved Wednesday will provide a new, comprehensive approach to gang violence.

``This signals a unified approach to the issue of the reduction of gang violence in our community,'' he said.

Ridley-Thomas' council district has three schools in the program while five districts have none, and seven districts, including Alarcon's in the northeast San Fernando Valley, had only one school each.

Under the expansion, Alarcon may see two more schools in his district added to the program, but the councilman said he is not sure their inclusion is based on the schools' need or based on proponents of the program trying to get his vote.

Council members Marvin Braude, Mike Hernandez and Joel Wachs joined Alarcon in voting against the compromise.

Most council members said they supported the concept of the program, in which gang intervention and prevention agencies will bid to provide a multifaceted program in the neighborhoods surrounding targeted middle schools.

Ridley-Thomas said L.A. Bridges is a comprehensive program aimed at providing after-school recreation, counseling, employment assistance, mentoring, parent training as well as mediation and crisis response when tensions rise in the neighborhood.

``It's the best way to apply prevention, treatment and/or rehabilitation programs, before a lot of these young kids get involved in gangs and get involved in serious criminal behavior,'' Police Chief Willie L. Williams told the council.

However, the council was divided over the way the 18 schools were selected. The schools - including Fulton, Maclay and Sutter middle schools in the Valley - were selected because they are in the 18 police reporting districts with the highest rates of reported violent crime. The council action locked in the 18 schools for the program.

Hernandez, Richard Alatorre, Nate Holden and Alarcon were joined by several community activists in complaining that the violent crime statistics do not necessarily show which schools have the worst problems with youth gangs.

Hernandez noted that the program was the result of outrage over gang violence in Lincoln Heights and Cypress Park but that no school in the Hollenbeck Division was included in the list of 18.

Alatorre said some of the schools suffering the worst gang problems in his district were also excluded.

``There has to be something wrong with the selection of schools and area,'' he said.

Mark Novak, leader of the group Valley Organized In Community Efforts (VOICE), told the council that it was unreasonable to only target one school in the Northeast Valley, while three inner-city council districts have a total of 10 schools in the program.

``The allocation of the schools is not fair,'' he said. ``The northeast San Fernando Valley is as full of gang problems and crime as any area of Los Angeles. It gets one school?''

Councilman Mike Feuer called on his colleagues not to delay the program in a parochial dispute over which of the 15 council districts will get a share of the limited resources.

``Dividing by 15 is a thing of the past when it comes to attacking our problems in our city,'' Feuer said.

Alarcon, Alatorre and Hernandez sought to have the criteria for selecting the school revisited in committee, but Councilwoman Laura Chick said reopening the issue would just create a new ``tug of war.''

``We have goofed. We have seriously left off some (troubled) schools,'' Chick said, but she added that the best solution was to add more schools.

Chick won approval of a motion that gives the program $1.1 million in identified federal block grant funds and $1 million in federal Crime Bill funds, boosting the total budget to $11.2 million.

That would allow up to seven additional schools to be added to the program.

If the council decides to use the same criteria used for selecting the first 18 schools - violent crime rates - the seven additional schools would include Madison Middle School in North Hollywood, Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley and Pacoima Middle School. Pacoima is in the police reporting district with the 25th highest violent crime rate.

However, the council gave the LAPD and school police discretion to substitute schools that do not place as high in violent crime but that they feel have more serious gang problems.

Because LAPD officials said Hollenbeck Division has some of the most troubled schools, and the division is not part of the top 25 for violent crime, there is a chance some Hollenbeck schools will take the place of schools that are on the current list.

Even the expanded program will not deal with all the need for gang-diversion programs, said officials who have identified at least 34 middle schools with serious gang problems in Los Angeles.

``I think the frustration we suffer from is the lack of resources,'' said Braude. ``We just don't have enough resources.''

However, Wachs and Novak said the city is about to commit to spending millions of dollars a year to subsidize the construction of a downtown sports arena and that money could be put into gang-diversion efforts if that was a higher priority.

``This City Council needs to look at its priorities,'' said Novak.