EDITORIAL WHERE THERE'S SMOKE ... FUNNY BUSINESS AT AIRPORT LENDS CREDENCE TO PAY-TO-PLAY SUSPICIONS.

AS the funny business at the Los Angeles Airport Commission continues, it's beginning to seem that even if no smoking gun is discovered in the pay-to-play probes, all this smoke more than suggests a pretty big fire.

Even Mayor James Hahn, who's had a serious problem with selective perception during the whole investigation, is now suggesting that his top man at the Airport Commission, Ted Stein, might have to go. Hahn forced out his own liaison to the airport, Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, last month.

For a guy who's maintained that there's nothing to the allegations of unfair practices that gave contracts to campaign contributors or punished those who didn't give by denying them contracts, that seems awfully telling behavior.

And the smoke signals continued last week when officials at Los Angeles World Airports concluded in a report that politically connected contractor Tutor-Saliba had messed up the $33.9 million Van Nuys FlyAway upgrade project so badly that it ought to be removed before it does any more damage.

On Monday, despite the staff recommendation to dump Sylmar-based Tutor-Saliba from the Van Nuys project, the commission headed by Stein decided to essentially let the company finish a job it's botched in many ways. The commission is satisfied that closer monitoring will fix what's broken, suggesting it was the staff's failure - not Tutor-Saliba's - that caused the shoddy workmanship.

Of course, that's exactly the kind of special treatment one would expect for a politically connected company that got the FlyAway contract just a few months after contributing $100,000 to Hahn's campaign to defeat the secession of the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.

While this might not be an actual crime, it's clear that what goes on in city contracting is nothing but politics and trading of favors.

That the company even got the contract at all was hard to justify since it has a long history of screw-ups on public works construction projects. The company even incurred the wrath of local officials when it mismanaged the Metro Red Line subway tunnels and was ordered by a jury to give back $30 million.

Forget disreputable resumes. That doesn't matter in the current world of doing business with the city of Los Angeles. What speaks loudest at City Hall is the almighty dollar, and Tutor-Saliba ponied up at just the right time and in just the right situation.

So what's it going to take to get the leaders at City Hall to see that the shady deals need to end, for both their benefit and the city's? Despite the desperate arm-waving by city officials, the smoke is getting thick enough to cut.