Mayor Evicted From Leased Store : Santa Clarita: Jill Klajic and her partners in tuxedo shop must pay $6,202 in back rent and $4,908 in damages.

Santa Clarita Mayor Jill Klajic and her partners in a tuxedo-rental business have been evicted from a local store they were leasing for failure to pay $6,202 in back rent.

Newhall Municipal Judge Alan S. Rosenfield ordered Klajic and her partners Thursday to pay their landlord $4,908 in damages as well as the back rent.

Landlord Stephen Kruger said in an interview Friday that he took the case to court because Klajic and the other owners of Tux and Tie on Soledad Canyon Road had not paid the $2,138 monthly rent since April.

“I can’t believe we have someone in control of the city who can’t even pay the rent,” Kruger said.

Klajic said she still hopes to stay in business but that the demand for formal wear has declined because of the recession.

The only slow-growth advocate on the City Council, Klajic said she expects her critics to use the eviction against her when she comes up for reelection in 1996.

“They’d be grasping at straws,” Klajic said. “There’s national corporations going out of business. There’s even been a couple of presidents with businesses that failed.”

Klajic said she and partner Chip Meyer were juggling too many interests earlier this year to concentrate on the business. Among other things, they were helping run an unsuccessful campaign for a local growth-control measure that failed in April, she said. Klajic said Meyer tried to negotiate a payment plan with Kruger earlier this year, but the landlord refused to let them pay their debt over time. Kruger said Meyer offered Thursday outside court to pay him a lump sum of $3,000, which he refused.