EDITORIAL HEADS MUST ROLL DOG FOOD HAZING CASE EXPOSED CITY HALL'S FAILURE.

NO doubt the Los Angeles City Council members who belatedly took a stand Wednesday against a ridiculously high payout to Firefighter Tennie ``Big Dog'' Pierce are expecting praise for their change of heart.

But the credit goes to the one council member who had the good sense to oppose an unprecedented $2.7 million payoff because Pierce's co-workers once laced his spaghetti dinner with dog food, and to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had the courage to veto the settlement.

With the sole exception of Dennis Zine, the council blithely voted on Nov. 8 to award Pierce the money so that the city could avoid a potentially costly trial -- at City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's recommendation.

The decision must have seemed routine to the council members that day, seeing as how they routinely rubber-stamp settlements for political expediency. It's the easiest way to get people with gripes -- legitimate or not -- to go away so that they don't have to delve deeply into what's wrong with city departments or policies.

Indeed, this would have been just another ``damn the cost'' kind of moment had it not been for the photos that surfaced showing Pierce was a bit of a prankster himself, and evidently could dish it out, but not take it.

Responding to the public outcry, the mayor smacked down the settlement. It would have saved everyone a lot of trouble had the council members exercised their powers of analytical thought when they first saw the picture of Pierce engaged in similar pranksterism -- not weeks later when it finally became prudent to do so.

Not only does the council not deserve praise for this mega flip-flop, it deserves to be publicly excoriated.

The Pierce case exposes what's deeply wrong with a city government that's owned by public-employee unions and other special interests. The council's reversal of the settlement shows not integrity, but a deep cravenness.

If Fire Chief William Bamattre deserves to be removed from his leadership position for allowing pranks, harassment and discrimination to go on unchecked in the department for more than a decade, then the politicians with oversight should suffer at least the same fate.

Bamattre may have been ineffective in dealing with these issues, but the system created by City Hall over the years protects workers who engage in the kind of misconduct that has long gone on in the Fire Department.

Ask yourself: Why haven't the people responsible for this kind of hazing been fired when taxpayers are paying a fortune for their misconduct?

Pierce's attorney warned that by rejecting the settlement, the council is setting the stage for a jury trial -- a fact she's happy about, presumably because it could mean a much bigger payday.

If that's the case, it's because city officials cannot defend the way they have run city government. They can't do it because they have run the city so badly.

The council is afraid to offend anyone who can help its members get elected, and has a long-standing pattern of doing what's easy, not what's right.

This type of cowardly public policy has got to end. Heads should roll. And not just the fire chief's.