EDITORIAL : LEADERS NEED VALUES; L.A. COUNCIL MEMBERS GIVE SHORT SHRIFT TO COMMUNITY'S STANDARDS.

WHAT are leaders, if not people who set standards and serve as examples to others?

And what good are City Council members who fail to uphold community values or are unwilling to live by the highest standards?

A City Council committee reacted apprehensively Wednesday to Councilman Michael Feuer's proposal for an oversight panel that could expel, suspend or censure council members who discredit the council.

His idea is timely and necessary. Councilman Mike Hernandez is still on the council, casting votes and drawing a fat city paycheck even though he used cocaine in his City Hall office and his city car and admitted to being high during meetings.

Feuer based his idea on ethics procedures of Congress. It's a reasonable proposal. But it sent the committee into shock.

Council member Jackie Goldberg said she is a homosexual engaging in behavior that is illegal in dozens of U.S. states, and it's ``dangerous'' for any group to decide what conduct is appropriate when cultural values change over time.

But in truth, her sexual orientation isn't illegal; and if she was referring to certain sex acts, then it must be said that many heterosexual acts also are prohibited by laws in many political jurisdictions under laws that are not enforced for private behavior. In short, her point is specious.

Council member Ruth Galanter recalled hearing criticism about the length of her skirt and expressed concern that ethics rules might extend to such matters, a trivialization of a serious issue.

The third committee member, council President John Ferraro, wondered whether doing a one-arm push-up in the council chamber might bring discredit on the council. This is known as reducing an issue to an absurdity.

So this is what Los Angeles has come to. Members of the city's most powerful governing body find morality and ethics too hard to deal with.

The council members reveal their inability or unwillingness to deal with the mainstream values, standards and principles that are upheld and adhered to every day by millions of ordinary residents of Los Angeles - a vast majority that knows well the penalties they will suffer by violating society's rules and mores.

The same thing happened earlier this month when the council couldn't muster a majority to stop a sex club that has been operating illegally in defiance of city rules.

But at other times the council isn't so immobilized - such as when Goldberg and others disapproved of Councilman Nate Holden and Lee Martinez, the former city clerk, who (successfully) fought allegations of improper behavior toward women.

Nor were council members bashful about banning smoking, even in private places.

However, when it's time to reflect the values of the regular folks of Los Angeles, council members are paralyzed. So what good are leaders who are so removed from the values of the people they are supposed to lead?