EDITORIAL OFFENSIVE DEFENSE COUNCIL MEMBERS WANT THE PUBLIC TO PAY THEIR BILLS.

THE Los Angeles City Council's got a lot at stake in the legal fight to keep Proposition R on the November ballot. Namely, four more years of job protection, since the measure would all but guarantee council members a third four-year term.

Considering that's worth more than a half-million bucks apiece in salary -- not to mention the priceless perks of public office -- it's understandable that council members would decide they need the best lawyers money can buy to go to court on their behalf.

What's not understandable and totally unreasonable is that they are sticking the city -- and thus the taxpayers -- with the bill.

Tuesday, the council voted to approve a down payment of $26,000 to a private law firm to fight its battle against term limits -- one of the few reforms that actually have worked in the public interest. That's not the first bill the city has paid for this legal fight, nor will it be the last.

The council squelched any form of public debate before hastily putting this cynical measure on the ballot. So what possible logic could justify making the public pick up the bill for a thinly veiled political ploy by elected officials who want to hold on to their cushy positions?

It's offensive that the council would think so little of the public it serves as to try to ram through a job-extension bill disguised as ethics reform, then make us pay for it.

Since the council members don't care what the public thinks, they should reach into their own pockets to pay the bills of the well-connected law firm of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has washed his hands of this matter, letting the council trample on the public interest and presumably pay the consequences at the ballot box and in the loss of public esteem.

But he, like them, has a responsibility to protect taxpayer dollars. The bill for this is going to reach six figures quickly, and the least the council members should do is pay it themselves.