EDITORIAL : SNUBBED AGAIN; ABSENT COMMISSIONERS LEAVE NORTH HILLS RESIDENTS OUT IN COLD.

THE San Fernando Valley secession movement probably has some new recruits, thanks to the Los Angeles city Planning Commission.

It happened Thursday when the commission stood up an overflow crowd of nearly 80 North Hills residents. The panel failed to muster a quorum due to the unexcused absences of two of the five commissioners, Anthony Zamora and Marna Schnabel.

North Hills residents had gone to the commission meeting at the Sherman Oaks Women's Club to protest a 30-unit housing development proposed by Ted Stein, a former planning and airport commissioner. Now they will have to put up with the inconvenience of doing it all over again.

The meeting, which had been scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., finally was called off at 11 a.m. Commissioner Robert Scott called the lack of a quorum ``a little frustrating.''

That was the understatement of the day.

What happened was inexcusable.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who appoints the commissioners, owes an apology on behalf of the city to everyone who had any business before the commission Thursday.

Riordan also should summon the two unexcused commissioners to his office and demand to know why they didn't notify the commission's staff that they would be no-shows. Any commissioner who fails to provide a satisfactory answer should be fired on the spot.

Now don't get us wrong. We aren't going out of our way to make an example out of the Planning Commission. Actually, the Planning Commission for decades has been more accessible to Valley residents than most city commissions, since it meets in the Valley about once a month.

Nevertheless, that practice still smacks of tokenism given the planning workload generated by the Valley. Moreover, it's physically impossible for a part-time commission to pay adequate attention to the Valley - or anyplace else - so long as it is responsible for planning a city that covers more than 460 square miles.

The fact of the matter is that the Valley - and other neighborhoods as well - deserve something better than government by road show. Decisions affecting neighborhoods should be made by people who know the neighborhoods, not outsiders who would be lost without a Thomas Guide.

Besides, planning matters in Los Angeles often are enormously - and in many instances needlessly - complicated. That often forces concerned residents as well as applicants to go downtown to check maps, records and mind-numbing bureaucratic regulations.

The two charter reform commissions have an opportunity to come up with a better system to give neighborhoods more control over their destiny.

If they don't, secession will become even more attractive than it is today.