3 SUPERVISORS TAKE OATHS TO SERVE : KNABE TO JOIN BURKE, ANTONOVICH ON BOARD.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

It was a day of pomp, promises and performances at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration on Monday, where three county supervisors took official oaths of office.

Michael D. Antonovich, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Don Knabe all were sworn in to serve four-year terms running the largest local government agency in the country, as well as serving on the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The three were sworn in during separate ceremonies. Burke's was the most elaborate, lasting more than an hour and featuring three choirs, two ministers, chart-topping soul singer Jeffrey Osborne and actress-singer Anita Berry.

In her swearing-in speech marking her return to office, Burke said she hopes to improve the MTA's heavily criticized procurement system and finally realize long-sought changes in county budget documents to make them more understandable and useful.

Knabe, a former Cerritos councilman who was Supervisor Deane Dana's chief deputy for 13 years, became the newest member of the board. He replaces Dana, who retired after 16 years in office.

Knabe's election makes the fourth of five supervisorial seats to change hands in the last five years, after more than a decade of no turnover on the board. Only Antonovich, who was sworn in for his fifth term, is left from the group that ran the county throughout the 1980s.

As his two colleagues did in their swearing-in speeches, Knabe said he was concerned about welfare reform's impact on the county's already strained coffers.

Depending on how many former recipients of federal aid turn to county general relief, such reforms could shift tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in expense to the county, Knabe warned.

But generally, he was upbeat, promising to find ways to maintain the safety net of services - including emergency rooms, courts, jails, welfare, parks, beaches and museums - the county provides to its residents.

``We need to be creative, but we can't be slash and burn,'' Knabe said to a standing-room-only crowd of about 850. ``I'm not a bomb thrower, but you'll know when I'm impassioned. I look forward to being part of the public debate and casting tough votes when necessary.''

State Treasurer Matt Fong and about 600 others attended Antonovich's early morning ceremony, where he dwelled on a series of policy and program achievements over his 16 years in office.

Antonovich said he planned to push for further immigration reform this year, a policy issue that has long occupied him, and continues to be involved in developing ties with the People's Republic of China, which is now negotiating with the county Natural History Museum for another blockbuster exhibition of ancient relics.

District Attorney Gil Garcetti also was sworn in Monday during a private ceremony. Because he was re-elected by a razor-thin margin that took more than two weeks to finish counting, Garcetti said he had held off sending out invitations to his public swearing-in ceremony until last week. It will be Friday at the Hall of Administration.

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PHOTO Yvonne Brathwaite Burke marked her return to office amid pageantry at the county Hall of Administration on Monday.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News