EDITORIAL HAHN'S SHORTFALL MAYOR'S BUDGET PLAN AND VISION FOR L.A. ARE LACKING.

IF you listened real closely, you could make out the faint outline of Mayor James Hahn's vision for the future of Los Angeles in his State of the City address.

Hahn envisions a city where the Los Angeles Police Department has enough cops to keep everyone safe, where there's an ambulance and a paramedic in every firehouse, where government officials live up the highest ethical standards.

In other words, a city nothing like the one over which one he currently presides.

Were Hahn simply a candidate for mayor, his vision, although limited, might have some appeal. But as the actual, sitting mayor of Los Angeles, it reflects a business-as-usual attitude that the city can no longer afford.

Under the new City Charter, the mayor of Los Angeles has extensive powers. He can be the principal mover and shaker in City Hall, the one who sets the agenda, who leads the way. But three-quarters through his first term, Hahn has instead settled for the role of bystander in his own City Hall, constantly saying he's watching what the council and bureaucrats are doing before deciding his own position.

Thus, the lofty talk of ethics reform: ``To me, ethics isn't optional, and I won't tolerate unethical behavior in my office or anywhere in City Hall,'' Hahn says. But he's the Johnny-come-lately to his own ethical party, having overseen abuses in his effort to crush secession and then denied there was even a problem until county and federal grand jurors started issuing subpoenas to some of his closest friends and his staff.

It's the same story for policing and firefighting.

Los Angeles could have more public safety personnel, but Hahn chose to talk up the issue without actually doing anything. The result is that Chief William Bratton has fewer cops today than he did 18 months ago, and the mayor's budget plan would give him only 30 more next year.

The reason is simple: Hahn gave away the treasury to all public employee unions equally without regard to the value of their work to the public. He allowed attrition to eliminate jobs instead of setting priorities.

The result is a government that's more expensive - in fact, 3 percent more expensive than last year - and yet services to the public are being cut and fees to the public are being raised.

For all the mayor has whined about the reduction in state funding, he still has more money to spend this year than last. He has achieved this by raiding reserve funds and getting the Department of Water and Power to turn over $60 million more in ratepayers' money to the general fund even as it seeks double-digit hikes in water rates.

Something is terribly wrong here. And the City Council has the chance to prove it deserves the pats on the back its members are constantly giving themselves, by tearing apart the mayor's budget plan, prioritizing spending, eliminating waste and inefficiency and providing a vision that will move Los Angeles forward.

Let's see whether they will give more life to the mayor's vision than he has, by putting real money into public safety and the programs and policies that will make this a better city for the people who live and work here - not just for the insiders who live off the public's tax dollars.