EDITORIAL DOWNSIZING GOVERNMENT L.A. NEEDS TO BE SMALLER, MORE WORKABLE.

THE smaller, the better - that was the message from a recent seminar on local government.

Sponsored by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, the seminar studied what size of government best empowers citizens and produces the best solutions to community problems.

Speaking before the alliance was Jeremy Smith, an expert in British local government who discussed the borough system in London, a city of 7.2 million residents spread over 700 square miles.

London is divided into 32 boroughs, each with a council of about 60 elected officials. The councils have authority over everything from planning to education, from transportation to economic development.

London obviously feels it can trust its citizens to govern themselves effectively.

In Los Angeles, a charter amendment created neighborhood councils that have absolutely no authority and are being set up in a way sure to fail.

Beyond authority, the question remains - how to redesign city government so that residents are connected to their elected representatives and the decisions they make.

A city where one council member represents 250,000 people leaves people out of touch and out of luck in getting much done to improve the quality of their lives.

Whether Los Angeles stays together, or is broken up by one or more secession movements, residents still need a model of government that is smaller, more workable, more accessible and more responsive.

A city of the San Fernando Valley - organized into semiautonomous boroughs that would reflect the community's rich diversity and energize ordinary citizens to take control of their own affairs - sounds like an interesting idea.