County Lobbies Wilson to Drop Tax Shift : Funding: Supervisors say transfer of money to state will devastate local services, but governor is unmoved. Officials deny charges that session violated open meetings law.

Los Angeles County supervisors, in a rare session outside the county, traveled to the state Capitol to plead with Gov. Pete Wilson to drop his proposal to shift property tax revenue from local governments to help balance the state budget.

The supervisors reported afterward that Wilson stuck to his position. But they said Administration officials agreed to examine alternatives to the governor’s plan.

The supervisors’ closed-door session with Wilson appeared to violate the state’s open meetings law, which requires local governments to conduct their business in public. But the county’s chief attorney contended that the session was lawful even though all five supervisors were present because it was not a meeting.

The gathering produced no visible gains for the county officials, who argue that the governor’s proposed budget would devastate their ability to provide public services.

Wilson’s plan would shift $2.6 billion in property tax revenue from counties, cities and special districts to the schools. He says the transfer would enable the state to maintain its commitment to education without further depleting the state’s dwindling treasury.

The governor wants a temporary half-cent state sales tax to expire by the end of this year and has said that counties can ask voters to reimpose the tax locally if the counties need additional money.

Because the sales tax by itself would not fill the gap left by the property tax transfer, Wilson has proposed freeing counties and cities from state laws requiring them to provide certain programs and services, allowing greater flexibility to make budget cuts.

But county officials said the state should extend the sales tax indefinitely and use that money--not the property tax--to support the schools. They said the property tax should stay with local governments to support property-related services, including law enforcement.

“It’s a shell game,” Supervisor Mike Antonovich said of Wilson’s proposal. “It’s a con game. And the governor knows that.”

Board Chairman Ed Edelman said the supervisors and the governor had a “very lively exchange of views.”

The meeting was held in the governor’s private Cabinet room and the press who gathered to cover the event were barred from entering.

The state’s open meetings law, known as the Brown Act, requires meetings of a majority of the members of the Board of Supervisors to be open to the public. The limited exceptions listed in the law do not include meetings such as the one held Tuesday. The state attorney general has ruled that even informal information-gathering sessions are covered by the law.

But County Counsel DeWitt Clinton, the board’s top lawyer, said the law did not apply in this case.

“I don’t think this is a meeting of the Board of Supervisors,” Clinton said. “Each of them are here to lobby the governor and to tell the governor what their position is.”

Wilson aides originally scheduled a photo opportunity at the beginning of the meeting but canceled it when they realized that reporters might not agree to leave. The governor’s state police security detail blocked the entrance to the room and a Times reporter was threatened with arrest for seeking to enter.

Wilson said later that the supervisors told him they believed the meeting was legal. But he added: “Candidly, I don’t care. It’s their problem. I was happy to meet with them.”

Times staff writer Hector Tobar in Los Angeles contributed to this story.