FOR MICHAEL WOO : Trust Is the Defining Issue in the Campaign : Talk of crime and jobs have dominated the mayoral race, but the candidates are most clearly separated by an intangible: Who will speak the truth as mayor?

This is perhaps the most important mayoral election in the recent history of Los Angeles.

Our choice June 8 will determine not only who our next mayor will be but what kind of city we will live in, what kinds of values we Angelenos will embrace.

It’s been charged that issues aren’t being discussed in the campaign. I disagree. Two of the most important ones--crime and jobs--have been addressed by both candidates. How Richard Riordan and Mike Woo have dealt with them tells a lot about each man’s character and truthfulness.

Take crime and personal safety, matters of special concern to the San Fernando Valley. Both candidates have advanced proposals to increase the size of the Police Department, but let’s look at them closely.

Although he talks tough on crime, Mr. Riordan actively opposed Police Chief Willie L. Williams’ attempts to add 1,000 officers. Instead, he has tried to sell a pie-in-the-sky plan to lease out Los Angeles International Airport.

The Times called Mr. Riordan’s plan “hot air.” The Daily News called it a “political flight of fancy.” An independent analysis shows his numbers don’t add up. But he continues to peddle this idea.

Mike Woo, by contrast, supports Chief Williams and has offered a tough, no-nonsense plan to build the LAPD to 10,000 officers by:

* Cutting city budgets except for police, fire and sanitation.

* Redirecting money from the Community Redevelopment Agency.

* As the economy improves, dedicating new city revenue to additional officers.

Mr. Riordan has offered no real plan to revitalize the city’s job base. He mainly cites his putative success as a businessman and corporate takeover specialist. But a Times analysis showed that while Mr. Riordan made $73 million as a junk-bond-financed leveraged-buyout artist in the 1980s, he created a net total of only 14 jobs.

Mike Woo, on the other hand, has offered a detailed 10-point economic plan. It includes an “economic czar” to consolidate and simplify the city’s permit processes and make the city more business-friendly. It also proposes using $5 million in city funds to leverage up to $200 million in bank loans to small businesses.

The most important issue in this campaign is: Whom can we trust to tell us the truth, to make the tough decisions--instead of just talking tough?

Los Angeles desperately needs a leader who stands for something, who has a set of values to guide him in the face of incredible pressures. Perhaps most important, we need someone who tells us the truth.

Mike Woo makes no bones about his positions--even when they draw a lot of flak. His strong stands and actions on protecting a woman’s right to choose abortion and helping get deadly handguns off the streets have brought plenty of hate mail. A little soft-peddling here, a “no comment” there would no doubt reduce the heat. But Mike Woo believes in leveling with the voters.

Mr. Riordan, by contrast, says he has no ideology and boasts about making huge political donations to both liberals and conservatives--including often contributing to opposing candidates in the same race--and giving to groups with opposing viewpoints. To me, that doesn’t sound like something to brag about, it sounds like someone with no convictions.

Also, as a woman I find it deeply disturbing that Mr. Riordan hasn’t come clean on the abortion issue, claiming he is now pro-choice while just two years ago he called abortion “murder” and donated thousands of dollars to groups dedicated to taking away a woman’s right to choose. And his less-than-forthcoming manner of handling the revelations about his arrest record also should give pause.

This election really boils down to a matter of character and trust. This is how I see the choice: We can count on Mike Woo to tell the truth--even when it hurts.

Mr. Riordan, on the other hand, has demonstrated time and again that we can’t trust his word. Last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times headline says it all: “For Riordan, It May Come Down to Matter of Candor.”

So mark me down for the candidate whose word we can trust. On June 8, I will be voting for Mike Woo for mayor.