EDITORIAL : LAFCO'S DIRTY TRICK OUTRAGE METER: 8.0.

TODAY'S lesson in Toxic Politics 101 is why dumping a truckload of dung on people already covered with it might not be a good thing.

Apparently, those wacky wonks at the Local Agency Formation Commission missed that class - ``Save the City, Heal the Valley.''

Instead, LAFCO seems intent on pushing Valley residents beyond the city limits of Los Angeles.

It seems unthinkable that the agency that was whining a few months ago about not having enough staff or enough money to complete a study on the merits and pitfalls of Valley secession is now pushing to make it longer, harder, more costly - and totally unfair.

A proposal prepared for LAFCO says the agency should study cityhood for the San Fernando Valley as part of a total citywide review that would include still-hypothetical petition drives in Harbor City, Eagle Rock, Westchester-Playa del Rey, West Los Angeles, Hollywood and Brentwood-Pacific Palisades-Sawtelle.

The cost would balloon from an estimated $1.5 million to as high as $8.1 million and push back any vote on secession well into the next millennium.

LAFCO's recommendation that the scope of the study be expanded to all communities where anybody has ever thought about leaving L.A. is laughable - if it wasn't a total insult to the more than 200,000 Valley residents who signed petitions for their study.

Putting an expanded study ahead of the legally required study of Valley secession is the lowest the system has yet sunk to deny the 1.2 million people in the Valley their rights to due process, to be informed and to make up their own minds about their political organization.

One study has nothing to do with the other. They're not connected issues.

That the political system would make such a blatant attempt to stack the deck against cityhood for any or all dissatisfied communities shows just how anti-democratic the local political system is.

Since Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment began its push for a cityhood study less than two years ago, politically powerful forces have tried to block its every move.

Yet, the group has persevered and moved steadily ahead.

What gives? What's LAFCO so afraid of?

Maybe the truth.

And we don't think LAFCO can handle the truth.

Why not make it easier on everyone and just shorten the study to areas that want to stay in L.A. That ought to take a week and cost a buck, maybe $2.

The county-based agency empowered to oversee cityhood studies and set the rules for them is scheduled to review the proposal to stack the deck Wednesday.

We urge the members to weigh the full impact of their decision and play fair.

And if they want to further inflame the situation from Chatsworth to San Pedro, so be it.

Nothing quickens the resolve more than being dumped on repeatedly.