EDITORIAL : DO YOU TRUST CITY HALL? ESTABLISHMENT GETS A TASTE OF THE VALLEY'S DISCONTENT.

``PEOPLE do not believe us.''

Those insightful words were uttered Tuesday at a rare Los Angeles City Council meeting in the San Fernando Valley where a third of the city lives and works.

They were uttered by the brains and brawn behind the City Council, none other than Ron Deaton, the council's titular hireling and functional master.

Confronted by nearly 400 residents fed up with paying ridiculously high and unfair rates for sewer service, Deaton, the chief legislative analyst, and the council as a whole showed a small glimmer of recognition that the taxpayers of Los Angeles are mad at City Hall.

They agreed to conduct - but not yet fund - an outside audit of the sewer department to see if the sewer charge system is fair.

If council members needed further evidence of the degree of public alienation, members of the Valley VOTE cityhood movement were there to report in detail how city officials robbed them of their civil rights last weekend by kicking them out of the Van Nuys air show because they were seeking signatures on petitions allowing a study of how the Valley can secede from the city.

It was encouraging that the council recognized the nation's Bill of Rights still applies in Los Angeles and offered apologies for the airport department's outrageous misconduct.

Council members even ordered airport officials to make a complete report within two weeks how such anti-American misconduct could take place.

We would suggest that each individual involved in this fiasco make sworn declarations as to exactly what happened so that their statements have some credibility and don't lead to the usual City Hall game of whitewash and cover-up.

At least some members of the council appeared to be amused that the American Civil Liberties Union would come to the defense of the Valley - as if they really did not understand that the public's anger is about City Hall's contempt for the civil rights and civic rights of the ordinary people in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

That contempt goes far deeper than the denial of Valley VOTE's right to petition the government.

The angry homeowners supported by council members Hal Bernson and Joel Wachs made the point in demanding repeal of the $20 million hidden tax for sewer service. How can anything be more contemptuous than taxing people's sewage?

The best reason the council as a whole could give for refusing to budge on the sewage tax is that City Hall needs the money to keep themselves and their pet programs and the costly city bureaucracy in the fat and happy style they have become accustomed to.

Perhaps if the council were to hold its meetings in the hinterlands of this vast city twice or even four times a month instead of once a month, council members might have a better grasp on why ``people do not believe us.''

For the reason is obvious and well-known in the hinterlands: Los Angeles City Hall cannot be trusted to spend your money wisely and for your benefit.