As a wave of high-profile gang shootings continues to rattle parts of Los Angeles, city leaders are locked in a turf battle of their own over who should control gang-prevention programs and the millions of dollars to pay for them.
Each side blames the other for waging the kind of political infighting that for years has hamstrung the city's ability to combat some of the nation's worst youth violence.
Some leaders fear the impasse will only raise public doubt about City Hall's ability to rise above territorial squabbles and act responsibly.
"We have to get through the political battles for the good of the city," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who is promoting a $30-million parcel tax for the November city ballot to fund new gang-prevention programs.
The current friction involves Councilman Tony Cardenas, who chairs a committee on gangs, and City Controller Laura Chick. Cardenas is fighting a plan by Chick to shift gang-prevention services, now under council control, to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office.
Chick made her recommendation in a report last month that criticized the city for scattering a jumble of services across more than a dozen departments and spending millions of dollars on programs that have proved ineffective in turning youths away from gangs.
Since then, she and Cardenas have accused each other of delaying, with their feud spilling into public view two weeks ago during an appearance on the radio program "Which Way, L.A?" and continuing in statements issued by their offices.
Chick, a former council member and City Hall fixture for 15 years, criticized Cardenas for "stonewalling" her report.
Cardenas, a former state assemblyman who has made himself an authority on juvenile justice, responded that he needed time to digest her findings ahead of a Friday hearing of his Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development.
"Dysfunctional politics is taking over here, which is ironic because [my report] talks about how we need to take politics out of it," Chick said in an interview last week. "This is about turf."
Cardenas said that he agreed with Chick on the need to consolidate gang-prevention programs but that handing control to Villaraigosa would undermine that effort.
He said Chick, the city's fiscal watchdog, lacks the authority to adequately audit gang services in the mayor's office -- a point she disputes.
