CITY COULD TAKE A LESSON ON DOWNSIZING.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

AS part of his cost-cutting and governmental reduction plans, our new governor has said that he will slash, burn and reform the state's many needless and redundant commissions, boards and departments.

The city of Los Angeles, with its 50 commissions and the many departments created to serve them, could stand a little weight-loss program itself.

There are city commissions that really earn their keep, such as the Police Commission and the Department of Water and Power Commission. Those commissioners meet weekly, then spend additional hours digesting complex reports about topics such as consent decree compliance status and water turbidity. And they don't get paid.

But then there are a host of other commissions that have functions that seem less-than-essential to the basic operations of the city, with mission statements and agendas as inscrutable as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Quality and Productivity Commission's sole purpose, it seems, is to celebrate efficiency at City Hall with annual awards and evaluation of ``best practices.''

Meanwhile, the city's Cultural Affairs Commission is responsible for evaluating and recommending changes to public art. Here is a real agenda item about the proposed Chatsworth Cowboy from the most recent meeting:

``The artwork proposed is a Cowboy bronze statue six feet tall with a posture that denotes strength, relaxed, rugged, and ready to take on the day. The Cowboy reflects values of courage, appreciation, family, commitment, perseverance, gratitude, adventure, and vision.''

So what does it hurt to have a plethora of commissions on everything from the environment to women's issues? The commissioners volunteer their time (the only commissioners who get compensated, and quite well, are those on the Board of Public Works) to help the city better serve its citizens.

Where the costs start to pile up is in the administration.

In Los Angeles, most every commission is part of a department. Some commissions were developed to help elected officials set policy for existing departments, like police, fire or animal services. In other cases, the departments were created to serve the volunteer commission with a highly paid executive director, secretaries, project coordinators, typists, analysts, newsletters, offices, computers, a legislative liaison, etc.

This gets pricey, and with the city facing a financial abyss, the idea of consolidating commissions and departments has been creeping through Los Angeles City Hall.

A proposal to consolidate the separate paid support staff for the following commissions is currently going through public hearings: Commission on Aging; the Human Relations Commission; the Children, Youth and Their Families Commission; the Commission on the Status of Women. Merging them into a singleDepartment of Human and Social Services would save the city an estimated $3.6 million.

In that spirit of money saving and consolidation, I've come up some suggestions:

--Abolish the Quality and Productivity Commission. Imagine the example of efficiency in government the commission could set by eliminating itself!

--Consolidate the Community Development Department and Community Redevelopment Department. The Community Development Department is about creating economic prosperity in the city. The Community Redevelopment is about creating economic prosperity in the parts of the city that are most run-down. Can't they just get along?

--Merge the Cultural Heritage Commission and the Cultural Affairs Commission into something called simply, the Culture Commission.

--Fold the Animal Services Department and Commission into the Zoo Department and Commission. After all, it's all about keeping animals from running wild on the streets. Maybe the zoo enclosure designers can help spiff up the look of the city's animal shelters, which have all the ambience of a high-security prison hospital.

--Abolish the city Ethics Commission and its staff of 25, because it's just no use having a commission that is undermined regularly by the people it's supposed to be policing. Ethics in government is wishful thinking. We might as well use the $2.1 million to hire more cops so at least our streets are safer.

I have other ideas too, ones that could be worked up into full-fledged proposals. I'm just waiting for the call.