EDITORIAL : STOP MTA'S RAILROADING; PROPOSED RULE WOULD OVERRIDE ANTI-GRAFT LAW.

LOOKING for a group of officials who believe they are above the law? Try Los Angeles' version of the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee: the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The audacity of the transit board members to think they can skirt a state law that was written specifically to clean up the agency's reputation and stop the shuffling of millions of dollars in contracts to friends of board members clearly illustrates how deep the lines of corruption run inside Gateway Plaza's marble facade, a Taj Mahal mausoleum for the death of mass transit in L.A.

Last week, one of the board's committees unanimously supported a motion that will untie the strict conflict-of-interest rules the state Legislature imposed on it a year ago.

Written by Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, the law prohibits any of the 13 board members - all of whom serve as elected officials in Los Angeles County - from voting on contracts involving firms that have contributed more than $10 to the officials' campaigns in the previous four years, dating back to 1994.

If the level of corruption wasn't obvious before the Hayden law - what with criminal investigations and convictions of contractors and MTA officials and an ongoing federal probe into the actions of soon-to-be-retired City Councilman Richard Alatorre - it was more than apparent afterward.

The law has forced some votes to be postponed from one monthly meeting to the next and the next again because too many members were deemed ineligible to vote.

The board members have complained that this has stalled subway construction, prevented contractors as well as small-business subcontractors from being paid and cost the agency money every time approval of a contract was delayed.

The MTA board members, especially those who arrogantly accepted cash donations for their re-election campaigns from people who did business with the MTA, should stop whining. If work can't be done because their cronies can't get paid, they have no one to blame but themselves.

The changes recommended by the MTA board's executive management committee Thursday would eliminate the need for a majority of the 13-member board to approve time-sensitive contracts. In those ``special circumstances,'' as few as five yes votes would be needed.

Five of 13?

Are they sure four or three won't suffice? Why not one? After all, they have rubber-stamped each others' sweetheart deals for years at the expense of taxpayers and transit users.

We doubt any U.S. government entity would be permitted to direct the flow of millions of taxpayer dollars on a sub-majority vote.

If the board members can't help themselves from taking cash from every Dick and Jane who has a piece of the county's subway pie, then they ought to do the only honorable thing available: resign.

The Hayden law was enacted to eliminate the blatant overbilling, the wasteful squandering and the rampant cronyism that has infected the agency since it began investing in the pie-in-the-sky subway project pushed by downtown interests.

The impending departures of Alatorre, who has decided not to seek re-election to his East Los Angeles council seat in part because of alleged dirty dealings on the MTA board and elsewhere, and Larry Zarian, the retiring Glendale councilman who led the board through its lavish and uncontrollable spending days, could bring some change.

What won't cut it is an in-house rule that undermines the integrity of a law that both houses of the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson believed was sorely needed.

Now, the Legislature ought to consider changing the makeup of the board. Kick the current politicians out and replace them with people who can't be bought.