EDITORIAL WHITHER CHICK? IS CONTROLLER ABANDONING HER REFORMIST WAYS?

IN her seven years as Los Angeles city controller, Laura Chick has won the hearts of reformers everywhere by being the champion of reform in City Hall. In a municipal government filled with shamelessly self-seeking officeholders, she's been more interested in doing what's right than in holding on to power, more concerned with holding her colleagues accountable than with winning their approval.

So when this consummate anti-politician starts to act like, well, a politician, it raises some concerns.

Over the past month, Chick has expressed interest in running for City Council when her term as controller is up. This, in its own right, isn't necessarily problematic, but consider the circumstances:

For starters, Chick already served eight years on the council, up until she was termed out in 2001. By all rights, she should be done with the chamber. And she would be, if it weren't for the loathsome Measure R.

Measure R is the proposition that City Council members foisted on the L.A. electorate back in 2006. Although gussied up as a "term limits" and "ethics reform" measure, its point was purely to keep existing council members on the dole for four more years. It expanded the number of terms that members could serve from two to three, while enacting a bunch of toothless ethics policies.

But thanks to a slick, special interest-funded campaign, the council was able to trick voters into approving Measure R. And with that, all council members -- past and present -- suddenly became eligible for a third term.

And now Chick stands to become the next beneficiary of that unseemly trick -- the very sort of political chicanery she has resolutely fought against as controller.

What's more, to run for the council, Chick would have to employ yet another unseemly political trick -- carpetbagging.

Not wanting to take on the impossible task of unseating an incumbent, Chick has her eye on the soon-to-be vacated seat of Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who just so happens to be seeking Chick's controller's post. But to get it, Chick would need to move out of her Silver Lake home and into the Studio City area.

Carpetbagging, of course, is common practice among those seeking seats on the L.A. City Council. It's the sort of thing we've come to expect from ordinary L.A. politicians -- but not the sort of thing we would have imagined from Laura Chick.

Yet far more egregious than any of the political maneuvers Chick would have to undertake to get on the council was the wholly unexpected -- and utterly unwarranted -- seal of approval she gave to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council last month.

After a year of struggling to get an honest accounting, Chick discovered that the mayor and council had lied about how they said they would spend the proceeds from increases in city trash fees. Although the pols had sworn to use the money only to hire more police officers, they instead spent it on all sorts of other purposes -- most notably, pay raises.

This is the sort of scheme that the Laura Chick most Angelenos know and love would have swiftly denounced. But surprisingly, she gave it her blessing, noting that the rip-off was technically legal, while failing to point out that it was also blatantly unethical.

Chick even went out of her way to sweep the politicos' deceit under the rug.

"Probably the public did not think at the time that (the trash-fee increase) was going to pay for raises," she said. "If there were misperceptions or unrealistic expectations that the money was only going to be used for police hires, my report dispels that myth."

But there were no misperceptions, nor was there any "myth." There was only a lie -- one Chick uncharacteristically chose to whitewash.

Perhaps it was merely a momentary lapse in judgment. We're all capable of making mistakes, even a city controller known for her exacting attention to detail.

Let's hope so. Because the alternative -- that Chick was trying to ingratiate herself with the city power structure, whose support she'll need to get back onto the council -- is too sad to contemplate.

L.A. already has plenty of politicians, but it has only one true reformer among its elected ranks.

It would be a shame to lose her.