EDITORIAL NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT HAHN'S FAILED HIRING FREEZES ARE A POOR REFLECTION ON HIS MANAGEMENT.

``I'M proud of what I've done as mayor,'' James Hahn boasted at a gathering of labor activists over the weekend. ``I'm going to go out there and tell people about it, even if takes shouting it from the tallest building in Los Angeles.''

That's a nice sentiment, but for Hahn, there's just one problem: He could shout from the top of Mount Hollywood, and there's still no guarantee that anyone would listen.

After all, not even Hahn's own subordinates in City Hall seem to take his orders seriously.

Hahn has now not once, but twice, called for a hiring freeze in L.A. city government. Yet that hasn't stopped the bureaucrats from continuing to expand their ranks, draining ever more money out of a badly broken city budget.

The first time came in January 2002, when, realizing that his government risked drowning in red ink, the mayor demanded a freeze in all hiring except for public-safety workers, garbage collectors and other essential personnel.

It was an overdue gesture - and one that was widely ignored in City Hall. Department heads sought thousands of exemptions, which the City Council consistently approved, often unanimously.

After the Daily News exposed the failure of that hiring plan - 4,000 positions exempted in the previous six months - Hahn issued another hiring freeze in January 2003.

This one, we were promised, would have teeth. It was called a ``hard'' freeze, which was intended to show he really meant business. Fifteen months later, same toothless result.

Since the freeze took effect, the city has hired 239 more civilian workers than it's lost to attrition. That amounts to 1,136 new employees total, at an annual cost of $77 million to taxpayers in terms of salaries and wages.

Either no one in City Hall is taking Hahn and his ``hiring freezes'' seriously, or Hahn was himself never serious about scaling back the bureaucracy in the first place. Either way, it's a poor reflection on the leadership about which he now boasts.

But, in fairness, there is one place in City Hall where we have seen some real cuts: Hahn's own office has seen four deputies depart without replacement - of course, that came amid two grand jury investigations and allegations of unethical ``pay-to-play'' politics.

In other words, nothing to brag about from the rooftops, let alone the tallest building.