The speeches set the tone for the fourth annual, two-day meeting of the California Cities Gang Prevention Network, a 13-city coalition formed by the National League of Cities that city leaders said has helped slash violent crime rates in their communities.

Each of the mayors who spoke at today's conference -- including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan - also signed a "Mayors' Call to Action" urging federal, state and local government officials to continue efforts to prevent and end gang violence.

"There is no way to solve this problem unless cities are together," Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue said, speaking to dozens of Bay Area government officials, nonprofit leaders and reporters.

Working as a coalition, cities are in a better position to secure long-term state and federal funding for gang prevention programs, city officials said.

Many stressed the need for a multi-agency approach to addressing gang violence that incorporates not only different levels of government and law enforcement but also school districts and community groups.

That broad approach has helped each of the 13 cities root out gang activity before it becomes a problem, in many cases leading to drastically reduced levels of violence, city officials said today.

San Bernardino Mayor Patrick Morris said his city "has been made safer because of the principles we've adopted" under the network, cutting the city's homicide rate in half in recent years.

Quan said Oakland's murder tally this year is nearing last year's 10-year low, largely due to prevention and intervention strategies.

In a keynote address, Harris emphasized the need for better strategies against gang activity, especially as the state prepares to shift responsibility for key criminal justice functions to the county level.

"We need to get smarter in the way we use diminished public resources," she said, citing the state's 70 percent prisoner recidivism rate.

Harris said county governments, which will face the early release of thousands of parolees in the coming months in a move to ease statewide prison crowding, will need to reevaluate the various treatment programs and community-based organizations meant to reintegrate newly released offenders back into the community.

"I think for too long in all of these systems, we've accepted the status quo...we can't afford to accommodate the failures anymore," she concluded.