EDITORIAL : STARTING A FIRE; THE CITY COUNCIL IS PLAYING WITH MATCHES AS IT CONSIDERS REIMPOSING THE $13 BRUSH CLEARANCE FEE.

WHY is it so difficult for the City Council to comprehend the anger behind the $13 brush-inspection fee?

They have heard numerous complaints from residents and San Fernando Valley Councilman Hal Bernson that the fee is outrageous and a lightning rod for public discontent with City Hall.

The pay-or-be-fined notice and the drastic tree- and bush-trimming requirements imposed on homeowners miles from potential fire zones were nothing but an illegal attempt to gouge taxes from the public to cover up the hundreds of millions of dollars squandered every year by City Hall.

So what does the council's Public Safety Committee do in its attempt to rectify the situation?

They ask for a sweeter sounding letter as if the problem were miscommunication instead of idiotic public policy.

Let there be no miscommunication about this: It's not the wording of the letter.

It was the way the fee was thrust upon the city's homeowners solely because a new situation arose and City Hall saw a new way to squeeze money out of taxpayers. If the City Council gets away with this trick, they will be imposing fees on everything instead of finding waste in the $4.2 billion a year in taxes, grants and other funding sources they already get.

Public safety committee members Chairwoman Laura Chick and Mike Feuer - both of whom represent thousands of people being gouged - appear to have trained their eye on their ambitions for citywide office instead of representing the constituents who elected them.

Valley residents are fed up with being ripped off by City Hall officials who put their own self-service ahead of the ideals of public service.

It is this kind of conduct over more than a generation that has inflamed the passion of voters who want their own city where the people they elect serve them.

It's why a lousy $13 fee and a threatening letter angered so many.

It's why the council is playing with fire in pushing forward with this fee.

Valley voters spoke clearly in rejecting Proposition 1, the $744 million police and fire facilities bond measure, that they want to see a lot better performance from City Hall before they will pay new taxes.

Even as the council wrings its hands and looks for a subterfuge to impose this charge, its members ought to know that voters in the Valley, in San Pedro, in the business community and almost everywhere else are on the verge of a tax rebellion that could prove disastrous.

Let's face it. This isn't a fee. It's a shakedown, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has threatened to challenge the fee in court if the council reimposes it without voter approval.

City Hall is addicted to dumping on the Valley. It's time to get its own house in order before hitting up the public for even a single penny.