Growth Before Birth : Would-Be Council Members of a Yet-to-Be City Already Looking for New Worlds to Conquer

They haven’t been elected yet. They don’t even have a city to represent.

Yet candidates for the five seats on the proposed city of Santa Clarita’s first City Council are looking to the future. After less than three weeks of campaigning, many of them are eager to expand the boundaries of the proposed city.

“How soon can we annex the areas you left out?” one candidate asked a Los Angeles County official at a workshop last week to introduce council hopefuls to the duties and responsibilities of elected office.

Most of the questions asked by the 19 candidates attending the workshop addressed how the proposed 40-square-mile city could take immediate steps to include the rest of the Santa Clarita Valley within its boundaries.

The workshop, held at the City of Santa Clarita Formation Committee office in Saugus, was conducted by the Contract Cities Assn., a nonprofit organization that provides education, coordination and advice on municipal services.

If voters approve incorporation in the Nov. 3 election, the new city would contain almost all of the communities of Newhall, Valencia and Saugus.

But all of Castaic, much of Canyon Country and territory west of the Golden State Freeway and south of the Antelope Valley Freeway were omitted from the original 95-square-mile proposal.

The candidates’ yearning for immediate expansion illustrates the combination of ambition and the can-do attitude that prevails in the fast-growing community northeast of the San Fernando Valley. It also highlights a common sentiment uniting this field of 25 council hopefuls--the intense desire to seize control of the Santa Clarita Valley’s destiny, especially when it comes to the pace of growth.

“This is really our one chance to achieve a decent, viable local government,” said candidate Carl Boyer III, former chairman of the city formation committee.

Boyer speculated that voters, who have watched their rural area become more urban over the years, will approve cityhood as a backlash against developers.

“We’re one valley, and we should be one city,” said candidate Jan Heidt, of Sand Canyon, a longtime community activist. “Community-directed planning is crucial. We must have control of what happens here and not let the big guys downtown decide our fate.”

“We need local control over local money,” said candidate Linda Hovis Storli, 38, of Valencia, a Canyon High School government teacher.

All 25 candidates have listed growth as one of the main issues facing the area. No one has opposed growth. But most share the opinion of candidate Jeffrey D. Christensen of Newhall, 29, a self-employed general contractor, who said: “I’m for growth, but for controlled growth. Roads, schools and other services should be in place first. It’s almost as though people have become an afterthought in planning.”

The candidates’ occupations run the gamut from school-maintenance worker to corporation president. Like the area’s voters, most are Republicans, although at least two of the best-known are Democrats. The council offices, however, officially are nonpartisan.

Among the nearly 48,000 registered voters who live in the proposed city, about 60% are Republican. The remaining 40% are either Democrats, unaffiliated or affiliated with smaller political parties.

Like the community they want to lead, the 19 candidates at the workshop--and the six others not attending--are a diverse group. The 21 men and four women range in age from 28 to 73. Six are from Saugus, 10 from Valencia, three from Canyon Country, two from Sand Canyon and four from Newhall.

And, like 95% of the community, most are Anglo. Only two candidates are members of ethnic minorities.

“I think we have a sufficiently diverse group that reflects the community,” said Connie Worden, a vice chairman of the city formation committee. “We have people from the older, established communities and from the new, rising communities.

“There are businessmen, senior citizens, younger people. Some have done fairly well for themselves financially. Others are barely hanging on. Many are well-known in the community. Then there are a lot of new people not yet tested.”

Candidates may not have to be well-known to be elected to the new council, especially with the large number of candidates.

Worden said that if 30% of the eligible voters--about 15,000--turn out for the election, Santa Clarita’s first council members could be elected by as few as 2,000 or 3,000 votes.

“It’s anybody’s guess who will win,” she said. “It could be someone who’s not so well known. Anything can happen.”

At the Aug. 7 filing deadline, there were 27 candidates. Two have since dropped out. Barry E. Golob, a driver for a movie studio, did not have enough signatures of registered voters to qualify for the ballot. Don Benton, 30, announced that he has withdrawn because, if elected, he would have had to give up his seat on the Santa Clarita Community College District board. Benton’s name, however, will appear on the ballot.

Slates of candidates with similar platforms have yet to emerge. It is rumored that the building industry, fearing that the new council will impose a long building moratorium, will back at least three candidates.

Two candidates--Frank A. Parkhurst, 65, an advertising consultant of Canyon Country and Roger Meurer, 42, of Saugus, a civil engineer--have said they favor a building moratorium, but one that lasts only long enough for the new council to set policies on growth. None of the others has advocated such an extreme step.

Several of the candidates have similar platforms, however. For example, most have promised, as part of their platforms, that their first item of business would be to work toward the annexations. In addition to uniting Santa Clarita Valley communities, the annexations would give the proposed city control over the pace of growth in vast expanses of undeveloped land.

The candidates also have pledged to work toward getting cityhood.

“Having the cityhood issue win is my foremost aim,” said Louis Brathwaite, another former member of the formation committee.

At the outset, several candidates have the advantage of widespread name recognition because of their involvement in community affairs and public life inside and outside the community.

Perhaps the best known is JoAnne Darcy, county Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s field deputy in the Santa Clarita Valley for the past seven years. Darcy also is a longtime resident of the area who has been active in community affairs for many years. She announced her council candidacy at a Republican gathering honoring Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley).

Darcy, 56, of Saugus also has expressed an interest in running for a higher office, such as Wright’s seat, should Wright decide to attempt to unseat state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) in 1988.

Others who are recognized in the community are three former members of the city-formation committee--Boyer, 49, a government teacher from Newhall; Gil Callowhill, 73, of Saugus; and Brathwaite, 54, a federal government property administrator from Valencia.

Boyer and Callowhill were involved in the unsuccessful 1976 and 1978 attempts to remove Canyon County from Los Angeles County. Both were elected to the Board of Supervisors of the proposed new county, which never came to be. Callowhill, a retired industrial engineer, is a former elected member of the Castaic Lake Water District board.

Brathwaite has been a member of the William S. Hart Union High School District Board of Trustees. He also has been a member of the boards of directors of various community organizations.

Howard (Buck) McKeon of Sand Canyon is a member of the William S. Hart Union High School District Board of Trustees and is president of the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital board of directors. McKeon, 45, owns Howard & Phil’s, a chain of Western clothing stores.

William J. Broyles, 48, of Canyon Country, a maintenance worker for the Glendale Unified School District, served at one time on the Santa Clarita Community College District board. Kenneth Dean, 48, of Canyon Country, an architectural interior designer, has been an unsuccessful candidate for a seat on the Castaic Lake Water District board.

Supervisors’ Meetings

Also known in the community is Heidt, 48, a bookstore owner and familiar face at Board of Supervisors meetings, where she has argued for a court-ordered system to monitor development and lobbied against such actions as allowing developers to replace oak trees with houses.

Others active in Santa Clarita Valley affairs are Andy Martin, 63, of Newhall, owner of an insurance company and an advocate of cityhood since 1962; Robert Silverstein, 71, of Newhall, former president of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce; and Gail Klein, 43, a Valencia businesswoman.

Klein is a member of the Santa Clarita Valley Planning Advisory Committee, of which Martin is a former member. Martin lost a bid earlier this year for a seat on the Castaic Lake Water District board.

Lesser-known, but with experience in government, are Richard M. Vacar, 41, of Valencia, manager of airport affairs for the Burbank Airport, and Monty L. Harrell, 40, also of Valencia, former research and budget director for the City of Ventura.

Other candidates are Dennis Conn, 40, Valencia, a recreation consultant; Bill Hilton, 37, Valencia, pastor of the Newhall Christian Church and a food service broker; Dennis M. Koontz, 47, Saugus, a retired Los Angeles City Fire Department captain.

Also, Michael D. Lyons, 40, Saugus, a customer service manager; Ronald J. Nolan, 28, Valencia, a law clerk; Vernon Pera, 45, of Canyon Country, a manufacturer’s representative; Edmund G. Stevens, 61, Valencia, a sales manager, and Maurice D. Ungar, 51, Valencia, owner of a real estate company.

Billboard Advertising

Campaigning began even before Aug. 7, when the Board of Supervisors set Nov. 3 as the election date on cityhood. Darcy said she sent out letters to potential backers and had a good response. Darcy and Heidt, among others, have bought advertising space on billboards.

Most candidates say they do not have large budgets with which to campaign and cannot afford billboards. Several will send out mass mailings and appear at as many public events as possible. Others will conduct grass-roots campaigns.

“I’m going to knock on a lot of doors,” Callowhill said.

The candidates also will receive public exposure at least three candidates’ forums and two cityhood fund-raisers.

The cityhood committee plans two more workshops for the candidates. The next will provide information about the county Sheriff’s and Fire departments. It is scheduled Sept. 28 at the cityhood office. Another will cover the functions of a public works department.

“We’re going to be a pretty green City Council,” said Storli. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

If cityhood is approved, the five candidates elected to the City Council will shape the future of 110,000 people within the city’s borders. They will lead a community where the median household income is $42,981--$10,000 more than the county average.

Santa Clarita would be Los Angeles County’s 85th city--the fifth-largest in area and the seventh-largest in population. Its annual budget would be more than $16 million. The county’s Local Agency Formation Commission has predicted that the city will have a $3.5-million budget surplus the first year.