EDITORIAL : L.A.'S MONEY PIT OFFICIALS ARE TRYING TO THROW PARK FUNDS INTO A SLIDE-RAVAGED PACIFIC PALISADES CANYON.

Congratulations to leaders of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations for blowing the whistle on another scheme at City Hall to play fast and loose with voter-approved park funds.

Patricia Bell Hearst, Jill Swift and Gordon Murley are outraged that Los Angeles city officials plan to use funds from Proposition K, the park measure narrowly approved by the voters last year, to stabilize landslide-prone Potrero Canyon in Pacific Palisades. So are we.

Proposition K, which authorized assessments on property owners totaling about $25 million annually for 30 years, was represented to the voters as a measure to ``provide increased funding for the acquisition of and improvement of parks, recreation community facilities for use by children and others citywide.''

Rugged Potrero Canyon extends for about a mile from Pacific Coast Highway to the Palisades Recreation Center near Sunset Boulevard. The city began acquiring the canyon in the 1960s on the grounds it is needed to provide a link for pedestrians between the beach and the recreation center, and to expand the recreation center itself.

However, the Potrero Canyon project has more to do with protecting the city from liability for landslides than it does with providing more recreation facilities.

Official records indicate that the city, to settle lawsuits, spent $10.8 million to buy 23 residential lots along the edge of the canyon that were damaged by landslides between 1978 and 1980.

The landslide damage is evident today. But the value of the canyon for park purposes isn't. As Hearst said, ``It can't be a park. It's a straight-up-and-down thing. It's like climbing the Chrysler Building.''

Moreover, there already is a lovely greenbelt along Temescal Canyon Road less than a mile away. The public would be better served if most of the $5 million earmarked for Potrero Canyon were spent on unmet park needs in other parts of the city including the San Fernando Valley.

We acknowledge that the city has some serious and costly problems in Potrero Canyon. But most of them aren't park problems; they are public works and liability problems. City officials are using political sleight-of-hand to redefine a public works project as a park project so they can pay for it with Proposition K money, rather than use general fund dollars.

That's deception, folks. And it reaffirms what we've said about attempts to raid Proposition K to settle a lawsuit over an equestrian center at Hansen Dam: An independent citizens committee must be established to monitor Proposition K funds, and officials who play games with the money must be held accountable.