EDITORIAL RENT-A-REPAIR CREW CITY HALL'S 2 1/2 DEAL OF A CENTURY.

IN a city with infamously dismal public services, it's discouraging that the most promising proposal for improving those services seems to boil down to: Pay for them yourself.

But that's the essence of a plan that Los Angeles' Public Works Committee has recently endorsed. Wealthy Angelenos who grow tired of waiting for city employees to fix potholes or trim trees in their neighborhoods could pay city crews overtime to do the work on weekends.

Of course, the private citizens willing to pay for these services would, in effect, be paying for them 2 1/2 times - first through their taxes, then time-and-a-half to contract city crews on overtime.

But when the options are paying once and getting no service, or paying 2 1/2 times and getting some, the overcharging starts to look like a bargain - at least to those who can afford it.

As for the rest of us, that's another story.

There's some reason to believe that a two-tiered system of public services would benefit everyone: because the rich would have their streets repaired quickly on weekends, city work crews would be available to tend to neighborhoods in the less prestigious ZIP codes during the week.

In theory, it makes sense.

In application, the results could be far less promising.

As it stands, it's not the wealthier neighborhoods that tend to be hurting for public services. Their well-connected residents know how to command attention in City Hall.

Thus, in a city where basic services are already distributed inequitably, there's reason to think that letting the well-to-do hire city crews on the side could only exacerbate, not reduce, the disparity.

It's also the nature of L.A. government that more time or money for workers is no guarantee of greater productivity. Just because city crews might be freed up to do more work during the week hardly means they would do it, especially when work left undone can translate to lucrative overtime.

Still, if implemented correctly and properly monitored, the plan could slightly improve the quality of public services. It's worth a try. But it's a shame that this kind of tinkering is the best city leaders can come up with for reforming a government that's rampant with inflated costs and bureaucratic inefficiencies.

Only in L.A. could paying 2 1/2 times for the same service actually seem like a good deal.