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CYGS Supporters Call for Split of Anti-Gang Agency Los Angeles Sentinel; 2/3/1994; James Bolden Los Angeles Sentinel 02-03-1994 CYGS Supporters Call for Split of Anti-Gang Agency. By JAMES BOLDEN Staff Writer Amid growing reports of low morale at the South Los Angeles office of the nation's largest antigang agency, the Sentinel has learned that a drive to break up the Community Youth Gang Services and disband its board of directors is gaining community support in preparation for an announcement next week. A drastic move indeed. But leaders behind the decision say it's necessary; a last ditch attempt to save the only South L.A. anti-gang office, which they say is going through a phasing-out period. The activists, who included local ministers, politicians, businessmen and members of the community, will call for breaking the organization up into separate headquarters--an East and South Los Angeles office with separate operating budgets. The announcement, scheduled to be made Tuesday at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, has reportedly been delayed for months in order to give the agency's newly appointed Executive Director Bill Martinez, time to properly address inadequacies which are slowly making the south area operation extinct. Though most of the complaints center around the board's failure to repair damaged equipment and vehicles and to fill spots left open by frontline Crisis Intervention Workers, the greatest complaint is the denial of resources and a dismantlement of the South L.A. operation. Reports of in-house feuds, a shortage of two-way radios and vehicles for community patrols, and most importantly the fear of losing jobs, has created an environment becoming too difficult to operate in, a source said. Community Youth Gang Services began its operation on a modest budget in 1981. Today, the agency, whose largest contributors are the city and county, operates on a $3.9 million yearly budget. Neither county nor city officials would comment on the a proposed break up. Lonnie Wilson, a savvy gang counselor who retired last year as the CYGS component manager, said the problem at the agency is not a new one. In fact Wilson says, "It's been going on since 1981." Wilson recalled how the agency's former director, Steve Valdivia, who resigned due to stress and a number of other health related problems, was more diplomatic in the way he handled the agency's day-to-day operations. But now, Wilson said, the vision of the new director is unclear. Wilson added that the board of directors, which consists of 15 members: 4 blacks, 2 anglos and 9 Hispanics, "does not ethnically represent the areas where their clients live." "There's a board within a board," Wilson contends. "It's just not fair representation. We have too many crisis in our community. We can't afford this." Other critics charge that the agency, centrally headquartered in East Los Angeles, is slowly pulling valuable resources out of the black community, where according to 1993 Sheriff's Department records, over 225 Crip gangs with nearly 30,000 members and 84 Blood factions with over 10,000 strong exist. The board of directors selected Martinez, a senior planner with the Southern California Association of Governments, to head the agency last year. In doing so, many believe the agency may have indirectly snubbed interim director Charles Norman, in his bid for the post. Norman, a 20 year veteran of youth counseling would have been the first African American to head the 13-year-old agency. Norman assists Martinez with the tough task of planning and providing alternative programs to gang members in a city labeled the "gang capital of the world." Martinez came to the agency with no experience with gangs. He had served as senior planner for SCAG since 1989, as project manager for the Emergency Transit Operations Program, and coordinator for the Regional Emergency Transportation Planning Task Force. News Topics | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People| Life in a Gang | Gallery | Iraqi Cards | Memorial | Migration | Graffiti | Resume| Injunctions Homicides | Maps | California Prisons | Contact

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