Mayor Villaraigosa's Gang Program Has Spent Half Million Evaluating Itself -- To No Avail
An audit by Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel scheduled to be released Tuesday found that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's $26-million-a-year Gang Reduction and Youth Development office has, along with the nonprofit Urban Institute, spent more than a half million dollars to evaluate itself but so far has nothing to show for it.
Wendy Greuel.
"It is impossible to measure the overall success of the Mayors offices efforts because they - and their contractor, the Urban Institute - have been unable to provide evaluation of GRYD's overall efforts. GRYD and the Urban Institute have spent nearly a year and $525,000 in taxpayer funds trying to evaluate the effectiveness of GRYD's work yet have no measurable outcomes," reads a statement from Greuel's office.
That appears to be the worst mark on Greuel's report card for the gang programs. It states that after all city gang-reduction programs were consolidated under the mayor's office in 2008 that bureaucracy has been fairly efficient, meeting many of the recommendations set forth in a former audit.
According to her statement:
Overall the audit found that 52% of the original 109 audit recommendations have either been implemented or are no longer relevant. Additionally 47% of the recommendations have been partially implemented or are still in-progress. Only 1 recommendation has not been implemented. The audit found that GRYD has made substantial progress in implementing the original audit's recommendations in laying a strong foundation for a comprehensive anti-gang strategy.
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