Yes, a Special Prosecutor for Los Angeles : Assemblywoman Friedman’s bill is a good one that should be reintroduced in January

Los Angeles voters, in no uncertain terms, demanded clean government when they approved a comprehensive political reform measure by a wide margin in 1990. Charter Amendment H, as it is known, sets up an independent Ethics Commission and gives it new tools to make sure that politicians who illegally place their own interest before the public’s can be vigorously investigated and prosecuted.

But, in putting one of Charter Amendment H’s more important provisions into practice, the Ethics Commission has found it now needs help from the Legislature. Specifically, it needs legislative approval of a bill that would allow a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute in cases in which the city attorney has a conflict of interest.

Unfortunately, a measure that would have given a special prosecutor the power to enforce state laws died last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill, carried by Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-Los Angeles), was a good one that should be reintroduced in January. It initially sailed through the Assembly on a 75-0 vote but ran into a brick wall in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specifically, Chairman Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) and Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier) expressed fears that a special prosecutor might run amok.

Those fears do not seem warranted. For one thing, the city attorney is the one who would decide if his or her office had a conflict of interest and thus required appointment of a special prosecutor. Also, a special prosecutor would be empowered to function only in the case at hand.

A compromise seems possible. But, at least for this legislative session, time has run out. Aware that the bill would be defeated if brought to a vote in the committee, the city never put the measure to the test.

The protracted state budget battle, which has kept the Legislature in session past its normal time to adjourn for summer break, did tempt the Ethics Commission staff to consider an all-out effort to bring about a special hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reconsider the bill. But that hardly seems necessary, and anyway seems likely to have resulted in defeat. Besides, there are too many other more pressing matters before the Legislature--matters that could affect the city’s financial health in the years to come--that now demand legislators’ attention.

Next year, however, the Legislature should give Los Angeles what it wants by approving the special-prosecutor measure.