EDITORIAL OPENING UP L.A. EVALUATIONS OF ALL CITY MANAGERS SHOULD BE PUBLIC.

JUST as it came as little surprise that the Police Commission voted to replace Chief Bernard C. Parks, so, too, should no one be shocked that the public doubts the legitimacy of the process because it went on behind closed doors.

Mayor James Hahn tries to persuade Angelenos that Parks was dealt with fairly. The members of his Police Commission insist that ``facts,'' not back-room politics, governed their decision.

Yet many believe the fix was in when Hahn clumsily announced his opposition to Parks. Any chance that the chief would get a fair shot evaporated when the commissioners ignored the city attorney's advice to open up their interviews with Parks and went so far as to grossly mislead the public that the opposite was true.

In other words, the commission had no intention of facing Parks in public and giving him a fair chance to respond directly to their concerns.

Now, Hahn and the commissioners are trying to justify their decision by attacking Parks. They have tried to blame him for everything from rising crime to low police morale.

Beyond the damage done to City Hall's already tarnished reputation, there is one clear lesson to be learned.

End the secrecy. Open up the doors and windows of city government. Share power with the people.

Had the commission accepted Parks' request for a public hearing, the public would be able to judge for itself whether the process was the charade it seemed or a genuine exploration of the pros and cons of Parks' reappointment to a second term.

That way, the commissioners wouldn't now need to be defending their conduct; the behavior would have spoken for itself.

By choosing secrecy and deceit on the very question of openness, the commission damaged its credibility.

If the Los Angeles City Council had any courage, and there's little reason to believe it does, it would give Parks the fair hearing that the commission denied him. It could invite him in, examine his past glowing reviews, hear him out, challenge his statements - and then decide whether the chief deserves another term.

What makes Parks' closed-door kangaroo trial unique is that it resulted in a negative ruling. Typically, when these clandestine evaluations take place, city managers are rubber-stamped and given a pay raise, usually on the basis of politics, and without the public being informed about the issues at stake.

These are the nation's highest-paid municipal workers, lured into town under former Mayor Richard Riordan's dubious plan of paying for ``the best and the brightest.'' Certainly the public should have a say in whether they're living up to the billing, and should know whether their performance merits their salary.

Parks deserves a fair public hearing, but so do the rest of L.A.'s high- priced bureaucrats. Or, put another way, tax-paying Angelenos deserve a regular review process for the city's general managers that's open and on the record.

It's time for City Hall to be held accountable to the people who pay the bills in this town.