EDITORIAL WAR ON GANGS CITY HALL NEEDS TO FIND MONEY NOW TO SUPPORT POLICE EFFORT.

NOW that he's staved off secession and heard the concerns of his city's people, Mayor James Hahn says he's eager to change Los Angeles for the better.

The city's exploding gang problem ought to provide him the perfect opportunity.

The methods for successfully combating gangs are no secret. They are twofold:

First is prevention, which is best achieved by monitoring, mentoring and offering supervised after-school programs to at-risk youths.

Second is vigorous law enforcement, namely, putting cops on the street and gangbangers in prison.

It's not complicated, but it's also not cheap, and that's the rub. In Los Angeles, a city that has little difficulty scraping up $300 million to renovate its City Hall or millions more to benefit billionaires, funds for anti-gang efforts have long been inadequate at best.

The result is that entire neighborhoods of the city have fallen prey to gangsters who force residents to live in terror. The problem is especially severe in the San Fernando Valley, which has nearly 20,000 gang members who were responsible for more than half of this year's 94 homicides.

It doesn't help that the Los Angeles Police Department is more than 1,000 officers below its authorized force with 1,000 more off sick, or that its efforts are hampered by a federal consent decree. The result is that L.A.'s war on gangs is heavily tilted in the gangs' favor, and the gangs are winning.

To help liberate L.A.'s neighborhoods from gang occupation, Hahn and the City Council must commit city resources to waging the battle properly. That means finding the tens of millions of dollars it will take to fully fund positive alternatives to gangs and getting tough on street thugs. It also means correcting disparities in city policing, which leave the Valley with far too few officers for its size and population.

Los Angeles already has a promising formula for thwarting gang violence which it could use to pattern a comprehensive, citywide approach: LAPD Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann's San Fernando Valley Coalition.

Doing a heroic job with the limited resources at his disposal, Bergmann has brought together law enforcement and community-based organizations to get kids out of gangs and crack down on offenders. At the Valley chief's suggestion, one community group has even sponsored meetings between rival gangs, in the hopes of forging a lasting peace.

What Bergmann is trying on a limited basis and shoestring budget is what the LAPD needs to be doing citywide. New LAPD Chief William Bratton has endorsed Bergmann's approach, and he has vowed to make fighting gangs his top priority.

But neither Bergmann nor Bratton's good intentions will be enough to reverse the upward trend in gang crime without the full support of L.A. City Hall. Strong words and empty promises won't reclaim a single neighborhood, but targeted policing and programs could.

The question is whether Hahn and the council are willing to back up the many conciliatory statements they've made to the Valley with actual funding and commitment - or whether they continue stuffing the pockets of City Hall's insiders with the public's cash.

City leaders have talked a good game about improving the quality of life in Los Angeles. Now's their chance to show they mean it.