EDITORIAL OUTSOURCING GOVERNMENT CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS NEED TO DO THEIR JOBS, NOT HIRE AN OMBUDSMAN.

THE Los Angeles City Council has been grappling with a vexing problem in recent weeks: How to quiet the agitated gadflies at the regular meetings without riling up the already frustrated general public.

To that end, the council has limited the time for public speakers at meetings and adopted strict rules of decorum -- for the public, not for itself. These insulating actions have not won the council members new fans, especially since their own conduct has chased away everyone but gadflies from their meetings.

The latest proposal, from west San Fernando Valley Councilman Dennis Zine, is less punitive but just as ridiculous -- to hire an ombudsman to act as a liaison between the public and the council.

It's nice that someone is thinking about helping out the public. Trouble is, though, that Angelenos already have a team of ombudsmen and -women, 15 of them. They are the council members who are supposed to represent the interests of the public in their respective districts as well as look after the city as a whole. Of course, it's never worked that way. Instead, the council members do a great job of looking after special interests and, with the help of their staffs, looking after their own interests.

Zine tacitly acknowledges this with his proposal, which would, in effect, create another level of government to keep the public off the backs of the elected officials. No doubt the ombudsman will need offices and a large staff at high salaries and all the other things everyone at City Hall has come to expect.

If council members don't want to do the job they were elected to do, there's a simple solution. Quit, and make room for people who do.