EDITORIAL NEIGHBORHOOD NEGLECT.

FOR a brief moment on Monday, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski was the champion of community concerns in the reconstitution of the scandal-plagued Entertainment Industry Development Crop.

A very brief moment.

Miscikowski and fellow council committee members quickly tabled a move to create an EIDC community advisory council when the corporation's interim head, Keith Comrie, promised that, somehow, his troubled agency would allow input on neighborhood concerns when it reorganizes.

The promise of lip service to the community was all the assurance the council committee needed since that's all the full council ever gives the community anyway.

L.A. city and county leaders want nothing more than to wash their hands of the EIDC mess. They would rather accept vague assurances than tackle tough EIDC-related issues, such as how the entertainment industry treats the neighborhoods it shoots in, and whether the EIDC is fulfilling its purpose - curbing runaway productions.

As city leaders move to put the EIDC at arm's length from themselves, they risk putting it out of reach of the city's residents.

Everyone appreciates the importance of the entertainment industry to Los Angeles and the need to take real steps to keep production here. But to achieve that the new EIDC must be accountable and responsible to the public.