Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed a former U.S. attorney to lead the state’s anti-gang programs, a new position he created in response to rising gang violence in California.
Schwarzenegger named Paul Seave to the post and appointed 10 others to an advisory panel to develop long-term plans to deal with gangs.
“We need to have an effort that we coordinate, that we are all on the same page, and that we have a collaboration there,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in Fresno.
Seave, the U.S. Attorney in Sacramento from 1997 to 2001, said more than 10,000 Californians have been killed in gang-related homicides in the past 20 years.
Schwarzenegger on Tuesday also announced $2.8 million in discretionary funding would be available for local governments to expand job training for kids involved in gangs or at risk of becoming involved in them. The state budget passed last month and signed by Schwarzenegger allocated another $547 million for after-school programs and $208 million to pay for school counselors, which he said will also help steer children away from gangs.
Schwarzenegger created the Office of Gang and Youth Violence Policy in May.
The members of the advisory group are: Deborah Aguilar, co-founder of A Time for Grieving in Salinas; the Rev. Dr. Joseph Bryant Jr., Senior Pastor at Calvary Hill Community Church in San Francisco; Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer; San Bernardino High School principal Sandra Rodriguez; John Shegerian, CEO of Fresno-based Electronic Recyclers; Sacramento Sheriff’s Lieut. Harvey Woo; Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer; Jack Calhoun, president of Hope Matters; Darryl Charles, founder of Overcoming Gangs in San Diego and Connie Rice, CEO of the Advancement Project in Los Angeles.