EDITORIAL CIVIC GUERRILLAS LOCAL LEADERS FORM GROUP TO MONITOR STATE TRANSPORTATION MONEY TO VALLEY.

IT'S come to this: ordinary, law-abiding people resorting to ``guerrilla'' warfare to ensure that their government lives up to its commitments.

Leaders from the San Fernando Valley launched a ``strike force'' and plan to use ``semi-terrorist'' techniques to track the spending of $500 million in transportation funds slated for local roads, freeways and busways.

Half jokingly, they have adopted the language of revolutionaries - for experience has taught them promises to the Valley all too often are broken by politicians who siphon off the money to other areas.

It shouldn't have to come to this. Local civic leaders shouldn't have to spend their time playing hall monitor to elected officials.

But David Fleming, a former state transportation commissioner and chairman of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, knows from experience the political games and back-room shenanigans that occur inside City Hall and around Sacramento.

With support from Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, and substantial funding from Washington Mutual, the group plans to follow the Valley's money and make sure it gets to the community.

And the money is key to helping the Valley deal with major street congestion and freeway gridlock issues.

Among the projects slated for the Valley are a $145 million Los Angeles-Valley Rapid Bus route from North Hollywood to Warner Center and a $336 million car-pool lane on the northbound San Diego Freeway over the Sepulveda Pass.

Additional projects include a $164 million car-pool lane on the Golden State Freeway between the Antelope Valley Freeway and the Hollywood Freeway, sound walls and upgrades to the San Diego Freeway-Ventura Freeway interchange.

Many of these projects should have been completed by now.

But the Valley has a history of poor representation by its elected officials at all levels - mostly because political districts have been gerrymandered to weaken the Valley and make our officials beholden to downtown and other interests.

That's why the MTA could spend $90 million earmarked for the Valley on other parts of the city because the Valley was disorganized and fighting itself and other communities.

We now have civic leaders fighting for the Valley. Hertzberg has shone as a champion of the Valley and we hope the rest of the local, state and federal leaders follow his example, so the Valley no longer has to resort to ``semi-terrorist'' techniques just to get its fair share.