EDITORIAL SEAL SECRECY COUNTY SUPERVISORS IGNORE 10 MILLION RESIDENTS TO CUT BACKROOM DEAL WITH ACLU.

A lot of people are angry at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and they have every right to be.

On Wednesday, the supervisors worked out a deal behind closed doors to remove a tiny cross on the county seal and replace it with nonreligious symbols. By Thursday, the supes were already deluged with an avalanche of letters, calls and e-mails from residents outraged over the cowardly act.

Not only did the supervisors concede before the fight even began, but they are also planning to come up with replacement symbols for the county seal in negotiations with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which threatened to sue after discovering there has been a cross on the seal for four decades.

This isn't about the public's deep reverence for the county seal. In fact, it's likely that before the debate began few if any county residents ever stopped to ponder the seal in any detail.

What rankles is the contempt toward the public. The ACLU has the right to bluster and threaten, but elected leaders ought to have the guts once in a while to stand up to such intimidation. The seal was designed by the beloved and the well-regarded late Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, and there's no evidence that it's caused harm to anyone.

A decision such as changing the Los Angeles County seal should not be made in secret negotiations with a special-interest group.

Maybe there should be a new, cross-less seal; maybe the one we've got is good enough and constitutional enough. But before the nearly bankrupt county government spends millions stripping thousands of county cars, uniforms, buildings and countless other objects of the seal, maybe the public that pays the bills ought to have a say.

Maybe there are some local lawyers with bright ideas on how to beat the ACLU in court. Maybe there are local artists who have some bright ideas for a 21st century seal that would better reflect Los Angeles.

The supervisors already have learned that contempt for the public comes with a price.

County officials say they haven't seen an outpouring of this much resident anger based on an action from the Board of Supervisors - not ever. That should be a wake-up to the board that its members must respect their constituents and not bend to the will of one organization's threats.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich said it best when he noted that the decision - which he did not support - is ``a violation of the public trust.''

There's still time for the entire board to come to its senses and stand up to the ACLU. The county seal might not be a masterpiece of art, it might even be a good time to redo it. But it's a public symbol, and the public ought to have a say.

And if it's clear - as seems evident - that the public is prepared to fight over this, then let's tell the ACLU that we'll see you in court. Let's see if the group wants to waste the public's money and its own time and money fighting over such a trivial issue when there are so many more important things to deal with.