EDITORIAL PHONY REFORMS ONLY REAL-TIME REPORTING WILL KEEP CAMPAIGN SPENDING CLOSE TO HONEST.

CITY ethics officials are lamenting the results of their own study that shows Los Angeles politicians have figured out how to thwart new campaign-spending reforms. And while they are appropriately dismayed, they ought not to be surprised.

Indeed, despite the city ethics reforms in 1990, savvy political operatives have illustrated time and again that they can and will figure out how to get around any spending rules. For example, when reporting rules constricted donors and politicians, they figured out a way around the system through independent expenditures, which the report shows accounts for most of the spending in city races.

Only complete, detailed and immediate transparency will keep a lid on the worst behavior.

What that means specifically is real-time reporting of campaign spending, not the period reports that often come in long after an election has been influenced by the money spent. Voters ought to have immediate access to information on who is supporting candidates and in what way. Similarly, the daily online posting of politicians' daily calendars would make the public aware of who has access to whom.

Complete honesty is probably not ever achievable when it comes to political campaigns, but relevant and timely information available to anyone who's interested might be the next-best thing.