EDITORIAL CLEAN HOUSE IT'S TIME TO MAKE DWP A DEPARTMENT FOR THE PEOPLE.

THE Los Angeles City Council's decision to halt a proposed water rate hike at least for now amounts to no less than a vote of no confidence in the utility's management.

Top officials of the Department of Water and Power spent months orchestrating a campaign to push through an 18 percent increase in water rates to cover $1.5 billion in borrowing to upgrade water quality and pay for security improvements because of the threat of terrorist attacks - both worthy goals.

But rather than making an honest effort to cut unnecessary spending and reduce costs, DWP officials have continued their free-spending ways by giving huge pay raises to workers, who already have inflated paychecks, and throwing away millions on grants, sponsorships and public relations manipulators - to name a few of the extravagances.

And when asked to provide a full accounting to justify the need for a hike, DWP officials gave few details, clearly expecting the usual rubber stamp from the City Council.

On Tuesday, wonders of wonders, that didn't happen.

Sure, it took unrest from the residents and agitation by the city's neighborhood councils that the DWP had ignored, but the City Council woke up and did the right thing. Saying there wasn't enough documentation for the need for a rate hike of 11 percent in residential water rates this year, and 7 percent more next year, council members unanimously ordered a full financial review.

And the council did the unthinkable: It criticized the DWP management itself.

``It's time to change the culture of Water and Power,'' pronounced Councilman Greig Smith, who initiated the action to stop the DWP water rate.

Now that the council has started down this road of serving the public interest, it must find enough courage to actually fix what's broken.

Breast-beating and posturing aren't enough. Authorizing a study with the intent of justifying the rate hike would be wrong. The DWP must be fixed, its wages and spending practices reined in. Its plans scrutinized. Its management made accountable.

DWP officials haven't needed to justify their actions to the public or elected officials for most of 100 years. To change the DWP's insular culture, the council must start at the top. The priorities and spending habits of the department must be opened to the sunshine during hearings and DWP officials must provide details and justifications for how they spend the public's money.

City Council members want to win the respect of the community. Here's an issue on which they can do it by taking charge of the DWP. They can make sure that the utility operates in the best interests of the city as a whole and not the politicians and special interests.

Then, maybe, they can stand up and credibly tell ratepayers that an increase of some sort is needed to improve the quality of the water supply and protect it from terrorists.