EDITORIAL ETHICAL SEWER DESPITE INVESTIGATIONS AND EXPOSES, CITY HALL HAS YET TO CLEAN UP ITS ACT.

THE comments by Los Angeles attorney and power player Pierce O'Donnell serve as a reminder to us all: No one respects the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, least of all those ``punished'' for ethics violations.

O'Donnell pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor counts of making campaign contributions to former Mayor James Hahn under false names. As punishment for his crime, O'Donnell was fined a combination of more than $300,000 from the court and the city. In addition, he is banned from making political contributions for three years and from contracting with the city.

But O'Donnell just shrugged off the threat of a city ban on his politicking, saying last week. ``I don't give a damn.''

This is a reminder that those truly plugged into the political power centers aren't brought to their knees by chump change. O'Donnell, former City Councilman Martin Ludlow -- who was fined $105,000 by the Ethics Commission for serious campaign-finance law violations -- and countless others who blithely ignored the law to influence politics have irreparably damaged our democracy.

For this, they deserve sanctions not so easily brushed off. These are people who walk away without jail or prison time because judges -- themselves beholden to the same political forces -- see nothing wrong with corrupting the electoral process and undermining public trust in government.

Instead of time in the clink with thugs, they get hit with fines that mean nothing since they go right back to the political trough of public money and earn even more.

The latest blow to the clearly toothless Ethics Commission is the revelation reported in the Daily News on Sunday that the commission doesn't even follow the law requiring that all city departments be notified of all enforcement actions.

This is no technicality. Serious violators of city ethics laws lead to individuals and companies being barred from bidding on contracts for the city for four years. If department managers conveniently don't know who has been fined, it makes it easy to ignore the ban provision.

Ethics Commission head LeeAnn Pelham dismisses the failure to follow the law as one of those things that has ``fallen to the bottom.''

In fact, it's not the only thing that's languishing down there in the depths. The ethics of City Hall are down there, too, and so is the Ethics Commission itself.