EDITORIAL CULTURE OF CORRUPTION FORGET IT, STEVE. IT'S CITY HALL.

GUILTY or innocent, Leland Wong, the former city commissioner indicted for public corruption in the City Hall ``pay-to-play'' scandal, is a symbol of all that's wrong with Los Angeles' politics.

As a commissioner under three mayors, power broker Wong learned how to manipulate the political system for his and the system's advantage.

He was the ultimate insider, raising funds for politicians, bestowing favors, representing special interests and pressing mayoral goals on boards overseeing the harbor, airports and Department of Water and Power -- the juice commissions that handle billions of dollars in contracts and generate fortunes in political contributions.

Now Wong is facing 20 charges that he accepted bribes to influence policy at City Hall; lied about it; embezzled money from his employer, Kaiser-Permanente; and filed false tax returns.

And though Wong is only one of a few people to be caught in the pay-to-play investigation, he's no aberration. P.R. executives Doug Dowie and John Stodder, who were convicted on federal charges of overbilling the DWP and other clients, had the misfortune to get caught doing what comes naturally to those running the game at City Hall.

The Wong indictment is important for District Attorney Steve Cooley's public integrity division. But it's disheartening that a three-year investigation jointly conducted by county and federal officials has only penetrated the periphery of City Hall's corrupt culture.

Investigators have failed to get to the heart of a system that's perpetuated failed policies for decades while benefiting politicians, lobbyists, developers, contractors and unions.

The city's elected leaders talk a lot about cleaning up politics, but their only prescriptions so far have been phony proposals -- like the November ballot measure that would weaken rules for lobbyists while keeping council members in office for four more years.

Cooley hints that there might still be more indictments, that he's not done ``rooting out corrupt public officials and exposing corruption within public institutions.''

That's a fine statement, but City Hall still operates pretty much the same as an insider's game in which the public is excluded.

And what investigators have learned about the actions of former Mayor James Hahn and his key deputies Tim McOsker and Troy Edwards -- all of them called before the grand jury to testify during the Wong investigation -- remains as obscure as ever. In the end, it won't matter much to the people of L.A. if Wong is convicted or beats the rap. What will matter is destroying the culture of City Hall corruption and creating strong democratic institutions that balance the power of the insiders with the power of the people.

Cooley owes the public full disclosure of what his investigation has learned about the mechanisms of corruption and recommendations on how to clean up City Hall. Anything less would make a mockery of the millions spent on this investigation and the hopes of the public for genuine reform.