First we have the City Council moving forward with yet another labor pact, with two sitting members on the council vying for the Democratic nomination for statewide office—and the funds needed to win from labor organizations, two votes for any pro-labor pact are already in hand.  This new pact would require businesses bidding on city contracts to have union workers.  There is some lip service stating the contractors can run their employees through the union hiring halls, realistically the clause of the employers paying into a union trust fund is what would come into effect. So once again our city council is attempting to restrict employment in our city and funnel and new employment to a select few members who happen to already have union cards.  Further this pact would increase development contracts by as much as 25-30% due to the contributions to union trust funds or wages.

Then Deputy City Manager Reggie Harrison yesterday presented yet another plan to combat gangs in our city.  Among the standard points that are brought up every single time gang prevention is addressed was jobs for our youth to give them a path to exit the gang environment.  Of course this works as long as the youth are eligible to be hired, which they are not for city projects if they are not part of a union based on the labor pact moving forward.  We want them to have jobs, just not these jobs.

The primary employers of entry level workers are small businesses.  Many small businesses are sub-contractors to bigger businesses who contract with even bigger companies and governments.  When the government dictates who can and cannot be hired to work on municipal projects they are restricting the small businesses and their hiring of younger less skilled workers and training them.  We want you to employ these young people, just not on this contract.

So do we want jobs for young people living in gang ridden neighborhoods, or do we want to continue to line the unions trust funds and treasuries by requiring they get a piece of every government contract?  We cannot have both.  Do we want jobs to support gang prevention? Then make jobs accessible.

Harrison said yesterday that the City of Long Beach spends $29.4 million per year on gang prevention programs.  Twenty nine point four million dollars.  In 2004 Lowenthal (Suja), O’Donnell and Gabelich were elected, since then over $100 million has been spent on gang prevention programs.  How has that worked out for our community?  Are we $100 million closer to gang eradication?  Are the gangs in Long Beach $100 million weaker?  How many kids have been prevented from joining gangs since 2004?  How many have joined?

Before we jump into another $100 million program concentrating on the same issues that have not proven to work thus far I think we need an accounting and audit of the funds already spent.  Clearly if we cannot reduce this problem with $100 million more money will not necessarily bring us any further to gang eradication—which I presume and hope is the goal and not just prevention.  Why have these programs not worked? How has the money been spent? On what basis is spending more funds on the same programs utilizing the same contractors and individuals expected to produce results with the next $100 million?

I have a thought, perhaps we concentrate a little less on the kids and more on the parents—many of whom are kids.  Or should I say parent.  Most of the kids caught in the gang life come from single parent homes.  Most of the kids in our schools taken out of the mainstream and put into special education programs are from single parent homes.  Most of the kids with chronic detentions, absenteeism and poor performance are from single parent homes.  Most of the kids run through our juvenile justice system are from single parent homes.  How is this problem being addressed?  Is it being addressed?  Is any money being spent educating the young girls on the chances of their child leading a successful, gang free, crime free life if they are brought into a single parent household with no father, no job, no high school diploma, no support?  Is any of the money being spent telling teenage kids not to have babies?

We spend over a quarter million dollars a year, year in, year out on gang prevention programs that do not work while at the same time eliminating the opportunity for young people to have jobs in our city.  By restricting the opportunity for job creation and support the city council is undermining one of the central tenets of the city’s gang prevention program, and so the cycle will continue.  In 2012 when Lowenthal, O’Donnell and Gabelich are termed out and another $100 million has been spent how many more kids will be born into this cycle, how many more gang bangers will our city have, how much more money will they spend on the same programs?

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