EDITORIAL SMOKESCREEN LAFD REFUSES TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT ITS PROBLEMS.

HAVING spent 14 years not dealing with the problems of harassment, retaliation and discrimination in its ranks, the Los Angeles Fire Department now wants to spend the next two years ... not dealing with those same problems.

Some things never change.

Since 2005, Los Angeles taxpayers have spent $14 million on settlements in cases involving LAFD employees. Meanwhile, the offenders get a slap on the wrist, if that, and LAFD brass and rank-and-file continue to receive regular pay raises, regardless.

Now the department proposes to solve the problem by creating a bureaucratic "Professional Standards Division" led by an LAFD assistant chief -- a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse.

And though there will be some civilians on the panel, such as a "fire independent assessor," he or she won't be hired until October 2009 -- at the earliest. Till then, let the hazing, the harassment and the lawsuits continue.

Once the division is in place, it's estimated to cost taxpayers $2 million a year. That would be a bargain if it actually curtailed abuses and staved off lawsuits, but there's very little reason to believe that will happen.

The LAFD will never get its house in order on its own. It will take a no-nonsense outsider to bring basic discipline back to the department.

Firefighters who abuse their colleagues should be terminated, as should supervisors who don't properly discipline them. And as long as the department continues to pay hefty settlements, its executives and employees -- not the taxpayers -- should bear the costs.

That would end the abuses far quicker than any self-protecting, bureaucratic panel.