EDITORIAL ATTACK AND DEFLECT DELGADILLO STILL AVOIDING CHARGES IN RECALL RESPONSE.

CITY Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who has been laying low since getting in trouble for misuse of city property, responded to the nascent campaign to recall him Tuesday. In a letter to the city clerk -- no TV cameras summoned for this one -- Delgadillo called the recall "an attack on public safety" and "misleading," and asked the public to take his side.

But nowhere in the letter did Delgadillo address allegations that sparked the recall -- that he improperly used city resources by allowing his wife to drive his city car with a suspended license and, when she wrecked it, sticking the city with the repair bill.

Out of that disclosure in June came a string of others, including the revelation that Delgadillo, one of Los Angeles' main law enforcers, had broken the law for at least a year by not insuring his personal car and that he used his city staff for personal reasons, including baby-sitting his two small sons.

The recall campaign run by a former county employee has little chance of ousting the city attorney from office. You need big bucks to do that. But it's too bad it couldn't have at least prompted Delgadillo to fess up fully to the charges.

He might think that the mayor's romantic scandal has saved him from having to answer to these charges, but one day he'll have to come clean or face the consequences when he makes his next run for public office.

Ultimately, Delgadillo is wrong about the recall attempt. It isn't an attack on public safety; it's an attempt to restore public integrity to an office that has lost it.

Like the mayor, his best chance to put this behind him is to come clean about what happened and work a lot harder to make this a better city.