EDITORIAL : VALLEY BASHING CITY COUNCIL DISPLAYS ITS PREJUDICE ONCE AGAIN.

WHAT happened Wednesday in the Los Angeles City Council was a good example of the shoddy treatment the San Fernando Valley too often receives at the hands of the over-the-hill-gang.

Taking advantage of the absence of Valley Councilman Hal Bernson, who was away on city business, the council delayed action on a plan to improve 37 abandoned railroad crossings in the Valley.

There was more of the same old rhetoric - that the ``wealthy'' Valley gets preferential treatment compared to the unfortunate folks on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains.

What those critics ignore, of course, is that most of the money to smooth the dilapidated rail crossings is being supplied by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which took over the railroad right-of-way to build an east-west transit line across the Valley. And since then, the MTA has neglected the right-of-way, allowing the crossings to deteriorate into rutted road hazards.

Meanwhile, the MTA goes on spending virtually all its rail construction budget outside the Valley, in the districts of some of the same council members who now have the audacity to complain that their districts will be shortchanged if the Valley finally gets a few crumbs.

What garbage. What gall. What's new?

This episode just illustrates - clearly and unmistakably - one of the obvious problems with L.A. municipal government in its current dysfunctional condition. Too many of the 15 council members talk about city unity when it fits their purposes, such as opposing Assemblywoman Paula Boland's bill for local self-determination, but otherwise they act as if they are ward-heelers at heart.

When cash or other resources become available, they operate on the principle of dividing by 15 - or multiplying by 14 when money is being spent. Arithmetic replaces judgment. Formulas replace fairness. What's yours is theirs, and what's theirs is still theirs.

These also are the people who wanted to continue to saddle Valley residents with bogus sewer fees (based on water used to irrigate lawns and plants, water that doesn't go into the sewer at all) just to keep rates down for their constituents who live in other parts of the city where the weather is milder.

But the council's shenanigans are hardly surprising anymore, even though they still shock the conscience. The council's stalling tactic this week was similar to the stunt some council members tried to pull in 1994 in connection with housing funds for earthquake victims. That one occurred while three Valley council members, Bernson, Joel Wachs and Zev Yaroslavsky, were absent. The 1994 attempt to hijack housing funds away from quake-stricken neighborhoods ultimately failed, and this one should fail, too.

As for the assertions that some council members are protecting the interests of low-income residents, it should be carefully noted that the bumpy Valley rail crossings can cause the most havoc, comparatively speaking, to poor folks' pocketbooks as well as slow the journeys of those who ride MTA buses, which must come to a virtual stop before venturing slowly across the rough patches.

As often is the case, the council members who claim they're looking out for the little people are only running roughshod over their right to fair treatment.