EDITORIAL : LET THE PROBE BEGIN; WHY IS GARCETTI SO AFRAID OF BELMONT?

IF District Attorney Gil Garcetti opened a window in his downtown office, he'd get a whiff of that terrible stench coming from the nearby Belmont Learning Center, the nation's costliest high school.

Which might cause him to start thinking: Gee, is that foul odor the smell of toxic chemicals that could kill children slowly or methane gas that could explode and kill children quickly.

Or is that the smell of LAUSD mendacity?

Either way, the Belmont stench is a big, big, big problem for Gil, who wants a third term as district attorney.

For months now, Garcetti's office has had information on possible criminal conduct in construction of Belmont, which is being built on a highly toxic oil field.

But the DA so far doesn't want to convene a grand jury.

And the DA doesn't want to open an investigation because he's not sure it's warranted.

He's still reviewing the situation, even as the mountain of publicly disclosed evidence grows higher and higher.

Let's look at the latest evidence, information that on its face suggests numerous violations of environmental laws and raises questions about whether other laws were broken along the way.

Construction notes and financial documents obtained by the Daily News show contractors building the $170 million Belmont Learning Center downtown mixed tons of contaminated and clean soil at the construction site, skewing tests for toxicity.

District officials repeatedly refused to turn over the documents earlier, suggesting a cover-up.

This comes just one week after district officials claimed no one was to blame for trying to water down an environmental bill protecting children's health and safety.

And it comes just two weeks after the Daily News uncovered serious design flaws at an underground electrical vault at Belmont in the ventilation system that literally created a time bomb.

And wasn't it just a few months ago that Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale, chairman of a legislative audit committee, released records suggesting LAUSD officials knew about serious contamination as early as 1989 and failed to notify the state.

Still, the DA can't determine whether a full-scale investigation is warranted?

What a dilemma.

If he investigates, he might be forced to tear apart the moribund LAUSD bureaucracy and find the answer to a question every informed person has been asking for years: Are they just dumb or are they crooks?

Meanwhile, the Belmont stench keeps growing and growing.

What's up, Gil? Why is L.A. the only city in the nation where DA stands for Don't Ask, Don't Answer?

If you think the Belmont scandal needs a thorough investigation, here's the district attorney's number: [phone] or fax, [phone].

Or call state Attorney General Bill Lockyer at [phone], or e-mail him at www.caag.state.ca.us.