CONFERENCE AIRS `BRIGHT IDEAS' FOR A BETTER L.A.(NEWS)

Byline: Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writer

One person suggested that Los Angeles use its sewage treatment plant to grow abalone, a delicious and increasingly rare shellfish.

Another said that the city could deter graffiti vandals if it raised its street signs a few feet.

And a third participant in Mayor Richard Riordan's ``Bright Ideas'' program suggested that the city open its own store to sell street signs, manhole covers and other surplus items.

But perhaps the best of the nearly 240 ideas submitted was Riordan's - to ask Angelenos to brainstorm on how the city could save money and improve the quality of life.

``I'm proud of it,'' the mayor said during Saturday's conference, at which the 25 brightest of the bright ideas were discussed.

``In Los Angeles, we have the most creative and entrepreneurial people in the world. The politicians shouldn't think we know everything,'' Riordan said during the conference at the University of Southern California.

The mayor joined with some 95 other people to begin the long process of bringing these ideas to life. The abalone and raised street sign ideas didn't make it to the conference, having been discarded by the judges, a group of USC graduate students completing their master's degrees in public administration.

But those discussed Saturday included a proposal to open a Los Angeles city store and another that would allow the city to copyright and sell licenses to market some of its famous vistas, seals and freeway murals.

``It's plain capitalism, yet it is artistic,'' said John McCormick, a pediatric nurse from Van Nuys who suggested the licensing of public art. Money raised would be spent to preserve the artwork from graffiti.

``It is something for the city, and it's something for all of us,'' McCormick said.

The city store idea is not completely novel; the Los Angeles County Office of the Coroner four years ago opened a store through which it sells T-shirts, beach towels and other items bearing depictions of chalk body outlines and the coroner's seal.

The plan to license city vistas, the city seal and other uniquely Los Angeles imprints met with enthusiasm for its potential to raise money and burnish the city's image.

``I think it is possible, but there is a lot of work ahead before the city can do it,'' said one participant, Beth Braunstein, who works in marketing for DreamWorks SKG, the studio formed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994.

``It is a fun idea, and it's a great city. There seems there should be a way where something can be done,'' she said.

Another idea discussed would allow the city to charge convicted drunk drivers for the time and expense of their cases. The idea's originator, Sherman Oaks attorney Howard Ekerling, estimated it could raise $1 million for the city.

The California Highway Patrol and a few other police agencies already are taking advantage of the 1985 state law that allows drunk drivers to be billed under certain circumstances.

``The public should not bear the burden of DUI arrests,'' said Ekerling, a reserve police officer. ``I don't think it will deter DUI drivers at all, but it will allow the city to recoup some costs.''

Other ideas discussed included the possibility of creating a second 911 number for nonemergency problems; converting fleet vehicles to run on natural gas; and using the Internet for building plan approval.