EDITORIAL PROMISES, PROMISES HAHN KEEPS HIS PROMISE - TO A SPECIAL INTEREST.

EVEN though he hasn't yet taken over as mayor, Jim Hahn has already started fulfilling the many promises he made to get elected.

Starting with the special interests, namely the Police Protective League, whose endorsement lent legitimacy to his tough-on-crime campaign.

In exchange for its support, the PPL demanded - and got - Hahn to pledge to implement a three-day, 12-hour workweek for LAPD officers during his first 90 days in office. No questions asked. And no time wasted.

It took Hahn only 30 minutes in a back-room Tuesday to overcome Police Chief Bernard C. Parks' adamant opposition to the compressed workweek as dangerous to public safety. By meeting's end, Parks was on the bandwagon - and the 3-12 will soon be a reality at least for some officers.

It's hard to imagine what Hahn could have said that Parks would find so persuasive. Maybe it was that Hahn was the only major mayoral candidate open to letting Parks keep his job. That might have persuaded him to cave in to the mayor-elect - just as he did to outgoing Mayor Richard Riordan on the consent decree and senior lead officers.

Parks' repeated surrenders suggest that the biggest fear about ending chief-for-life status and imposing five-year terms on the chief - politicalization of the LAPD - might be coming true.

If the mayor-elect can force the police chief to accept a policy he abhors in just 30 minutes, what can council members and influence peddlers and big-time campaign contributors get away with if they lean harder?

The PPL claims that a shortened workweek will boost morale and save money. But a study hasn't even been completed on whether the three-day week is feasible or cost-effective.

While Hahn was quick to pay his political debt to the union, he was equally quick to break his promise to the San Fernando Valley where he got the votes that carried him to victory over Antonio Villaraigosa.

Throughout the campaign, Hahn pledged to respect the Valley's right to self-determination. He insisted that even though he opposed secession, he would not stand in the way of a public referendum on the matter.

That promise faded fast once he won the race.

In one of his final acts as city attorney, Hahn issued an anti-secession study that challenges the very premises of any cityhood deal and threatens a lawsuit if the county's Local Agency Formation Commission comes up with a proposal that treats Valley residents as if they had the same rights as anyone else in Los Angeles.

Hahn promised a new kind of leadership, in which the city government exists to serve the public, not itself. He pledged to unite L.A. and empower its neighborhoods.

But if this preview of his leadership is any indication, we are facing the city being run by the same old special interests and self-serving politicians.

Business as usual at City Hall is not acceptable. Not in the Valley. Not in Hollywood. Not in San Pedro. Not in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles.