EDITORIAL CHICK SAYS NO LET THE POLITICIANS PAY FOR THEIR OWN PARTIES.

LOS Angeles taxpayers have saved $15,000, thanks to City Controller Laura Chick.

When City Councilman Joel Wachs called it quits last week, after more than three decades on the job, some proposed giving him a grand City Hall farewell.

According to Chick, they wanted somewhere between $11,000 and $15,000 for a killer bon voyage party, at which all the City Hall muckety-mucks and their well-connected friends would revel at the public's expense.

But Chick said no.

That might not sound like much, but at City Hall, that sort of respect for the taxpayer is a rare commodity.

L.A. officials are the best paid in the nation and the most free-spending. They work in a City Hall that's been refurbished for an astounding $300 million, plus the cost of fixing the leaky roof, which remains to be done.

In other words, they know how to take care of themselves.

But Chick did something very different - she put the public interest first. It's refreshing to see someone in City Hall recognize that taxpayers don't part with their hard-earned money to pamper politicians.

Wachs spent 30 years as the council's fiscal watchdog. A taxpayer send-off would have put an unnecessary blemish on his record.

Now that he's leaving for New York, the job of defending the L.A. taxpayer seems to have fallen to Chick alone.

She's off to a good start.