RESTRICTED FUNDING IRKS REFORM PANEL.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Los Angeles City Council leaders proposed stringent conditions Tuesday for funding the elected Charter Reform Commission - refusing to fund public hearings, consultants and other expenses.

At the same time, the full council refused to allow the elected commission to accept private donations channeled through a nonprofit foundation set up by allies of Mayor Richard Riordan after he launched the charter reform movement, unless all original donors are disclosed.

An outraged commission decided Tuesday night to explore whether the panel should challenge the council's authority and accept donations directly, bypassing the council, and let the council take the commission to court if it so chooses.

``I don't see where they are going to get authority to stop us,'' said Commissioner Nick Pacheco, a county prosecutor, who noted the commission was created under state law.

Newly elected Commission Chairman Erwin Chemerinsky set up a subcommittee to look at all legal options, including the possibility of accepting donations without council approval.

The conditions to public funding of the elected commission were proposed by a committee made up of Council President John Ferraro, Jackie Goldberg and Ruth Galanter. They, too, were immediately denounced by commissioners and others as intruding on the commission's independence.

``My concern is that they (the council) are really attempting to control this independent body,'' said Commissioner Janice Hahn, one of several commissioners to denounce the council actions.

``It's just another instance where we see a City Council insatiated by power and addicted to control telling a constitutionally authorized commission to get lost,'' said Studio City attorney David Fleming, who co-sponsored the charter reform initiative that created the commission. ``The council is saying you can't do anything without our permission.''

Added West Valley Charter Reform Commissioner Rob Glushon: ``I'm very concerned . . . The council shouldn't be telling us how to do our job. If we are truly an independent commission, the council should provide funding without strings attached.''

The commission sought public funding, despite campaign promises by Riordan to use only private funds, in part because of criticism over the possibility of taking money from special interests who might want the charter rewritten to their benefit.

The charter - an unwieldy and largely unintelligible 700-page document that sets the rules for city government - has been widely attacked because it grants most power to the City Council rather than the mayor or local neighborhoods.

After hearing a request for $1.3 million for the elected commission, the council's Rules and Elections Committee offered to provide only $358,000 for an executive director and minimal staff for the first year of the two-year project.

Council committee members insisted that the elected commission seek an agreement to share expert consultants and public hearing arrangements with the appointed Charter Reform Commission that the council created nearly a year ago. At the time, Riordan said the council created its commission to undermine his effort to reform the charter.

The council has appropriated more than $1 million for its own commission, which has only advisory powers. It can recommend charter reform changes to the council while the elected commission can present its reforms directly to the public for approval.

Ferraro, Goldberg and Galanter denied they are attaching strings to funding the commission, insisting all they want is to make sure taxpayer money is not wasted on duplicative efforts.

``An expert can advise both groups equally well,'' said Goldberg.

Added Galanter: ``Public accountability is not strings. I don't think anybody on the council is trying to block charter reform.''

The council members said they saw no reason to pay for two sets of consultants for the commissions, so they refused to allocate any of the $250,000 sought by the elected commission for experts.

In addition, they said $225,000 mainly targeted for holding public hearings is unnecessary since the appointed commission already has city funding to hold public hearings and the two groups can hold hearings together.

Ron Deaton, the council's powerful chief legislative analyst, said he thought it was ``inappropriate'' to have ``two sets of public hearings going on throughout the city for the next two years.''

A final vote on the budget proposal was scheduled for next week.

The full council, in refusing to approve a $30,000 funding down payment from the nonprofit Fund for Better Los Angeles Government, set new rules for private donations that are meant as gifts.

The council's new rules require disclosure of the source of the donation over $100, the source's occupation and business and whether the source is seeking or holds city contracts.

``It does seem to me that people who are going to be ultimately governed by the charter of Los Angeles ought to have the right to know who paid for it,'' Galanter said.

Some commissioners agreed that disclosure is good, but voiced concern that the council has used the issue to delay the panel's work.

Riordan was out of town on vacation but a source close to him criticized the council.

``The council's actions are both condescending and pretty revealing because they are saying they don't want an independent commission,'' said the source.