EDITORIAL : MISMANAGED HEALTH CARE; THE DUBIOUS DEALINGS BETWEEN THE STATE AND ROCKETDYNE WERE IMPROPER AND POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS.

THE least we could have expected from the California Department of Health Services was that it would look out for the health of those living near and working at Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the Simi Hills, three miles west of Chatsworth.

Instead, it appears, the government sold out.

On Monday, the Daily News reported that internal documents show that Rocketdyne and Wilson administration bureaucrats attempted to oust an independent panel investigating the higher-than-normal rates of cancer among Santa Susana lab workers.

That revelation came less than two weeks after the Daily News reported that the state had suppressed for two years a report that showed higher-than-normal cancer rates for those living near the lab.

The reports have spurred state lawmakers to call for the ouster of the top three health officials responsible for the agency's investigation of Rocketdyne and audits of the department as part of a fact-finding mission.

Gov. Gray Davis, who has met with Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, D-Encino, and told her he was ``quite upset'' about the apparent cover-up of the report, must demand quick results.

So far, he has refrained from speaking out. But it seems clear that something underhanded has gone on, and he must strip those in charge of the oversight committee of their responsibilities, perhaps suspending them until the investigation is complete.

We urge Kuehl and Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale, to keep digging, because more revelations are likely buried in the state's files.

If Davis needs more evidence to justify firing those who chose to keep hidden very important health data, then officials need to keep searching to provide it.

Californians must be shown that their government is working for them, not for the other interests.