EDITORIAL : BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL; BRUSH-CLEARING DEAL TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

ATTENTION, Los Angeles shoppers. We want to inform you that the city has a special on brush clearance this month. But you need to act fast. Call the city's toll-free hotline at (800) 773-CITY and ask for the Kharaghani special.

``Anyone can call (the city) and get this service,'' raves the deal's namesake, Shahram Kharaghani, a Tarzana resident who is the senior civil engineer in charge of setting controversial sewer rates at the city's Sanitation Bureau of the Department of Public Works.

We suspect, however, that the Kharaghani special is a deal that is too good for you. Here's why:

Under citation by the Fire Department, Kharaghani was told to clear the overgrown brush from his hillside home to remove potential fuel for a brush fire.

So he hired a gardener to do the trimming and stacked them 50 feet up his driveway. But faced with a bill that could have run more than $1,000 if he had it hauled away privately, he called the city. Soon after, 10 workers on city time, five trucks and a wood-chipping machine were deployed to Kharaghani's cul-de-sac home.

Neighbors, curious to see so many city trucks at the city worker's home, became outraged when they found out the workers had entered the property and cleared Kharaghani's yard of the 315 bundles of trimmings.

Kharaghani's price tag: $0. That's no typo. The 2-1/2-hour job was free.

Apparently, it's all part of the city's brush-clearance program. Call the aforementioned telephone number, and the city will send over a crew and clear your yard. Well, not really. The city may send a crew, but it will only be to pick up the trash bags filled with tree trimmings, leaves and debris that you or someone you hired placed on your curb.

So how did Kharaghani get his special? The assistant director of the Sanitation Bureau, Drew Sones, acknowledged it was ``unusual'' for the workers to step on the driveway.

By its very appearance, it seems as if Kharaghani got special treatment. We bet every other resident would have been laughed at if they sought the same deal.

Our feeling is that where there is smoke, there is often fire, and officials ought to make sure other employees aren't getting the same special kind of deals. If they are, they ought to get the bill before the city goes broke clearing 315 bags full of debris off of everybody's property in town.