| (Jan. 23, 2015) -- In August 2014, just weeks after Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia recommended and the City Council without dissent approved a FY15 City budget that no longer funds LBPD's former field anti-gang unit, the City of Long Beach submitted an application seeking $1.5 million from state taxpayers for an anti-gang grant that will focus on human-trafficking among teenage girls that the City says is a major revenue source for gangs.
In applying for the state taxpayer funds (a grant called "My Sister's Keeper") under the CA Gang Reduction, Intervention, and Prevention Program (CalGRIP), administered by the CA Board of State and Community Corrections, the City cited crime stats not routinely mentioned by LB's Mayor or Councilmembers. [Scroll down for further]
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In the grant application (obtained by LBREPORT.com from the state agency under the CA Public Records Act), the City acknowledged that in in 2014, gang membership in Long Beach was 12.82/1,000 people, more than twice the state average of 6.18/1,000 people. "Although violent crime in Long Beach dropped to the lowest level over the past forty years, youth and gang violence has spiked in certain neighborhoods," the city said, acknowledging that "gang related murders in 2012 were up 51% and gang shootings were up 18.9% since 2011 as reported by LBPD." It added (as previously acknowledged in statements by LBPD) that "gang violence contributes to at least half of the homicides in Long Beach." The City also told the state agency, "Funding sources historically supporting crime reduction in the City were cut by approximately two million dollars since 2010." It didn't mention that starting in FY10, LB's then-Council majority (which included now-Mayor Garcia) on the recommendation of LB's then-Mayor, Bob Foster voted to cut LBPD's budget to the point where LB taxpayers now have roughly 20% fewer budgeted officers for citywide deployment than LB had five years earlier. Long Beach (L.A. County's second largest city) now budgets a sworn police level for citywide deployment roughly equivalent per capita to what Los Angeles would have if its Council erased over 25% of LAPD's officers. (Other cities weathered "the great recession" without doing this to their public safety levels for taxpayers.)
Regarding anti-gang budget priorities, in August 2013, then-Mayor Bob Foster recommended a FY13 budget that proposed to end funding for LBPD's field anti-gang unit (20 officers + 2 sergeants.) The Council declined to do so but cut the unit to roughly half strength. Roughly two months later on November 5, 2013, the Council voted 7-2 (DeLong and Johnson dissenting) to approve unbudgeted raises for city management employees that management acknowledged would cost LB's General Fund (which funds police, fire and other core services) by roughly $1.8 million starting in FY15. In the narrative in its grant application seeking "My Sister's Keeper" grant funds, the City stated: [City grant application narrative text] Although gangs have historically trafficked drugs to earn money, the trafficking of young women is becoming more prevalent...Locally, each victim can generate up to $300,000 annually for the gang (Long Beach Police Department). This grant, My Sister's Keeper, will work to prevent and decrease the number of girls becoming gang affiliated or gang victimized (human trafficked.) As part of this, the City is working to dismantle the criminal enterprise of gangs, namely through prevention, victim intervention and suppression.
The City told the state agency that its goal is to "reduce gang membership and gang victimization among at risk female youths from 10-24 within Long Beach. The measurable objectives to meet this goal include:
In November 2014, the City was informed that it had been awarded the grant. To receive the state's $1.5 million over three years, the state requires recipient cities to provide a 100% match (cash, in-kind or both.) In a Jan. 6, 2015 publicly agendized action, city management requested and the Council approved spending $330,000 per year for two years that will be added to $330k already included in the the FY15 budget for the match. In FY15, the $330k budgeted sum was comprised of $180k, $100k and $50k from the budgets of LBPD, LB's City Prosecutor's office and Human Resources (Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network, which will be combined with $170k (we presume mainly in-kind) from LBUSD, LB Trauma Recovery Center; CAST; YMCA of Greater Long Beach; Helpline Youth Counseling; and Centro CHA, Inc. In his State of the City message, Mayor Garcia said Long Beach is strong and getting stronger, but in the context of economic growth said Central Long Beach (an area he said includes Anaheim to PCH, Cherry to the west city limits) hadn't kept pace. He noted that the area has high poverty and unemployment rates "and the crime rate continues to be a major challenge...This is unacceptable," Mayor Garcia said. The Mayor said "residents of central Long Beach need access to healthcare, education, and good jobs" and accordingly the City had applied for federal "Promise Zone" dsignation for Central Long Beach. "Only a small number of cities will be selected this year, but whether or not our application is successful, the process of applying for Promise Zone status has strengthened relationships between city departments and community groups. This will enhance our efforts to lift central Long Beach families out of poverty," the Mayor said. blog comments powered by Disqus Recommend LBREPORT.com to your Facebook friends:
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