PORN PANEL DUMPED.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Despite the objections of the county's top law enforcement officials and a half-dozen concerned citizens, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to disband the county's 37-year-old pornography commission.

Arguing that the commission had met only once since 1995 - and only five of the 15 commissioners attended that meeting - Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Gloria Molina and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke voted to end the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.

``The person I appointed to the commission, Michael Bennett, informed me the commission should be disbanded. It does nothing and it's a waste of county resources,'' Yaroslavsky said.

In response to the vote, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich directed the County Counsel's Office to bring an ordinance before the board in three weeks to establish a new commission dealing exclusively with child pornography, which Antonovich called a growing threat.

``With Los Angeles County holding the dubious title of pornography capital of the world, our efforts to fight this cancer on our community must be doubled, not eliminated,'' Antonovich said.

In a combination of cost-cutting and efficiency, the county has disbanded six commissions since 1994 and asked others to make themselves more relevant.

Last year, the Daily News revealed that the county's 190 commissions, task forces and committees cost taxpayers more than $7 million a year. Members of the pornography commission, which was created in 1964, receive mileage reimbursement but no pay, and the commission doesn't have a budget.

Spurred by dozens of e-mails from people across the country supporting the commission, Antonovich and Supervisor Don Knabe voted to keep the panel and cited its publication and distribution of 40,000 ``Stop Child Pornography'' pamphlets to schools and community groups in 1999.

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, Sheriff Lee Baca and District Attorney Steve Cooley wrote letters to the supervisors saying the LAPD had worked in conjunction with the commission to create the pamphlet against child pornography.

``The commission exists as a warning to pornographers that local leaders and law enforcement in Los Angeles County are serious about dealing with the problems associated with child pornography,'' Cooley wrote. ``Disbanding the commission would signal that the county is no longer concerned about its reputation as the pornography capital of the world.''