GOVERNOR WON'T ATTEND MAHONY'S CRIME SUMMIT.

Byline: Tony Knight Daily News Staff Writer

Gov. Pete Wilson has declined Cardinal Roger Mahony's invitation to a strategy summit on juvenile crime in Los Angeles later this month, an indication that the political rift between the two has not healed.

In a letter dated Feb. 1 - four days after the Daily News reported that Mahony's attempts to contact the governor had received no response - Wilson said he shared Mahony's interest in steering young people away from crime.

But he said he could not support further state funding for the anti-gang Hope in Youth program, supported by Mahony and other religious leaders, and would not attend the Feb. 21 summit meeting in Los Angeles.

"Your Eminence, regretfully I must decline your invitation to participate in the summit," Wilson wrote. "Prior commitments prevent my attendance, but I have asked high-level administrative staff to attend on my behalf."

Wilson said two critical audits last year of Hope in Youth had led him to rethink his earlier support for the program.

He suggested in his letter to Mahony that the Hope in Youth officials "take needed remedial actions that would establish the program as again deserving of funding in the clearly intense competition for anti-gang funds."

Striking a conciliatory note, Mahony said Friday that he was encouraged that the governor had responded - and hopes their differences have been resolved.

"He makes no reference to any lingering problem," Mahony said.

"And I think that if he were not approaching this in a very positive way, he certainly would not be sending top people to our summit," he said. "So I interpret this that we are moving ahead in the same relationship that we had earlier."

But the cardinal stepped up the pressure on the governor with a letter Friday reiterating his request for a face-to-face meeting with Wilson on Hope In Youth.

The anti-gang program was the largest of its type in the nation when it was launched in 1993. But it suffered major funding cuts last year, in part due to the critical audits, prompting Mahony to ask for a meeting with the governor.

Wilson gave no indication in his letter whether he would meet with the cardinal, and his staff did not respond directly to the question Friday.

"The governor responded to the points that the cardinal made, and I'm just going to let the governor's words speak for themselves," said Sean Walsh, Wilson's chief aide.

At the heart of their differences has been the controversial Hope In Youth program that was criticized in a December state audit for not being able to document that it was making progress in keeping youths out of gangs.

The Wilson administration subsequently ceased funding the program, which continues to operate at 10 centers within the city of Los Angeles with funding approved by the City Council.

The audit by the governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning charged that Hope In Youth officials had organized community members to participate in a political forum on Prop. 187 in violation of the Hatch Act.

It also asserted that public funds had been improperly used to lobby the county Board of Supervisors for financial support.

Hope In Youth officials denied that they used public funds for political activity. They said the Prop. 187 forum was held after the election and that it was appropriate to get at-risk youths involved in community activities.

They have, however, in recent weeks taken steps to improve the program's record-keeping.

"There hopefully will be, when we attend this summit, adequate proof that the program is achieving positive results, that the results are being adequately documented, and that the program is not engaging in any political activities," Walsh said.

Wilson staff members Friday were unable to give specifics on the governor's prior commitments preventing him from attending the summit. They also were unable to say which top staff members would be attending.

The rift between Mahony and the Wilson administration flared openly in December in a press conference called by the cardinal to refute the OCJP audit.

Mahony criticized Wilson for deciding to cut Hope In Youth funding, suggesting it was political payback for the cardinal's opposition to Proposition 187 and the governor's stand against affirmative action.

Wilson said in an interview last week that the cardinal's remarks were "unfortunate, unfair and not factual."

Mahony said the governor had not responded to his repeated letters asking for a one-on-one meeting on Hope In Youth. He released copies of four letters, including one dated Jan. 12 that said he was "mystified" why Wilson was unable to respond to the head of the "largest Catholic Archdiocese in the United States."

Confronted with the cardinal's letters last week, Wilson said he had been unaware of them and denied that he had snubbed Mahony because of their differences on the issues of immigration and affirmative action.

In his Feb. 1 letter, Wilson said he supported Hope In Youth until a series of audits pointed out major problems with the program. But he said he remained supportive of efforts at early intervention to keep kids out of gangs.

"I personally acted to secure state funding for Hope In Youth," Wilson wrote.

"Subsequently, I learned to my surprise and intense disappointment of the evaluation made by ETI based upon monitoring findings that program implementation had failed to meet the admirable goals of Hope in Youth."

The governor was referring to a 1994 audit of Hope In Youth by the private, nonprofit Evaluation and Training Institute that found the program was unable to document any progress toward its stated goals.

But the audit suggested the program should be given more time to prove itself because making fundamental societal changes in tough neighborhoods was a long-term job.

An Aug. 23 interim report by ETI said the program has "demonstrated significant improvement" in recoTrd keeping. But it said "our major conclusion is that data collection and reporting continue to be problematic within the HIY organization."

Mahony said a more recent ETI audit, prepared for the city of Los Angeles, reviewed the program more favorably.

The preliminary progress report for the period from February 1995 to December, meticulously details program activities involving 1,086 at-risk youths but does not make any conclusions about the overall effectiveness of the program.

The final version of the report is expected to be distributed at the Feb. 21 summit, ETI staff said.