BRIEFLY : CITY SUES COUNTY OVER DRUG TESTING.

The city of Los Angeles has filed suit against the county of Los Angeles, claiming the county has reneged on a deal to pay back the city for drug tests performed on people convicted of drug offenses.

Under the system, every drug offender is required to pay $50 for the drug test, which is a requirement for some substance abuse diversion programs. The county collects the money and then reimburses the cities that perform the tests.

In this case, lawyers for the city of Los Angeles say they have performed $4 million worth of drug tests on convicts. However, they allege in the suit that the county Treasurer's Office has failed to pay the money the city is owed since the beginning of the year.

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2 West Valley schools to reopen

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Monday to reopen two closed west San Fernando Valley schools and begin negotiations on sites for primary centers in the East Valley.

Plans call for reopening Haynes Street and Newcastle Avenue elementaries as well as Osage Elementary in Westchester. It would cost about $7.4 million to reopen all three schools, said Gordon Wohlers, assistant superintendent of the district's Policy Research and Development unit.

District officials also plan to begin negotiations for two Van Nuys sites owned by the Department of Water and Power. The sites would be used as primary centers - elementary schools for 400 kindergarten through second-graders that are typically one to two acres in size.

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Police identify man hit, killed by car

Glendale police Monday identified the 82-year-old pedestrian who died after being hit by a car last week.

Officials said Denis O'Brien of Glendale was hit by a Ford Probe driven by another 82-year-old Glendale resident as O'Brien was crossing North Verdugo Road on Friday at about 11 a.m., said Chahe Keuroghelian, a Glendale Police Department spokesman.

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Special education `emergency' cited

Los Angeles schools need to hire up to 500 special education teachers a year if it wants to comply with the Chanda Smith Consent Decree, officials told a panel of board members Monday.

``I ask you to declare this an emergency situation,'' consent decree administrator Louis Barber told the Special Committee of the Whole. ``We need to hire 300 to 500 teachers every year if you want to get ahead. If you continue growing by 18,000 students every year you will not keep up.''

This year the Los Angeles Unified School District's total enrollment is expected to reach 680,000 students.