CUTS MAY HURT WAR ON GANGS DOING AWAY WITH UNFILLED POSITIONS WOULD LEAVE FEW FOR EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS.

Byline: Grace Lee Staff Writer

Stemming gang violence in the face of expected state cuts to gang-fighting programs will be even tougher if Ventura County eliminates unfilled jobs in the District Attorney's Office, prosecutors warned.

``Gang violence is a terrible problem, and it's not getting any better,'' said Jeffrey Bennett, chief deputy prosecutor for special prosecutions. ``You can't let your guard down for a minute.''

Despite a request from District Attorney Greg Totten, Ventura County supervisors voted this month not to make up for a $128,100 loss of state anti-gang funds.

Instead, supervisors, citing a long-standing policy against funding programs that have lost outside grants, directed the county's chief executive officer to help Totten find new outside money.

Totten had asked supervisors to allot $128,100 to a Gang Violence Suppression program to make up for 37 percent in cuts from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

The money would pay two full-time prosecutors who work with law enforcement, community groups and the cities of Ventura and Oxnard, which also receive gang violence suppression funds.

``Even though we live in one of the safest metropolitan communities in the United States, we are experiencing a frightening increase in gang-related violent crime,'' Totten wrote in a memo to supervisors. ``Gang-related murders, assaults, carjackings and shootings have a real impact on our community's safety.''

The county has about 50 gangs and more than 5,000 gang members, Totten said.

County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston told supervisors earlier this month that outside funding from the Justice Department appeared likely, but Bennett cautioned this past week that the funds were not a sure thing.

``The source of funding that Mr. Johnston decided to tell people about is not yet available,'' Bennett said.

Cmdr. Scott Whitney of the Oxnard Police Department credits the Gang Violence Suppression program with a drop in serious gang assaults in the city despite an overall rise in gang violence within the county.

Calling the 10 percent drop in serious gang assaults from last year to this year ``pretty significant,'' Whitney said that prosecutors who knew the intricacies of gang activity in the area played a critical role along with police and community groups.

Prosecuting gang members will pose an even tougher challenge with the planned elimination of 18 unfilled positions in the District Attorney's Office - a decision, Bennett stressed, that Totten has not agreed to.

Supervisors, facing a $10.4 million budget shortfall, cut 70 positions throughout county departments. Supervisors had already trimmed $17 million in spending in February.

``With the positions filled, we'd be a much better crime-fighting machine,'' Bennett said. ``It would give us a safety valve.''

Totten said budget constraints have forced him to move two gang prosecutors into positions that require them to handle other cases alongside the more time-consuming gang killings. The office is already working with 14 fewer prosecutors than last year, he said. The move means that many serious gang assaults and other crimes will go to other felony and misdemeanor prosecutors.

Totten wrote in a letter to the supervisors that eliminating the positions would ``jeopardize the safety of the citizens of this county,'' saying that felony prosecutions were 47 percent higher than the same period last year.

Totten is challenging the budget cuts, arguing that the state Constitution gives him discretion over his own budget.

Johnston has said that with a $31 million budget, he doubted any court would decide that supervisors had kept Totten from doing his job.

Bennett said he could not comment on whether Totten would pursue litigation to restore the eliminated positions.

``We anticipate further discussion,'' he said.