Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Campaign Materials Criticized in Council Race : Politics: Carl Boyer’s posting of City Hall phone number on his billboards and Jill Klajic’s use of altered city logo draw fire. Both are incumbents.

Controversy continued Monday over what City Council candidates must, may or--in the most recent scuffle--may not print on their campaign signs and literature.

Incumbents Carl Boyer and Jill Klajic both have drawn criticism for reelection materials that some say are linked too closely to the elected posts that they now hold.

Critics believe that Boyer shouldn’t print the Santa Clarita City Hall’s main telephone number on his billboards alongside his home phone number, saying it costs the city money to answer those calls. They also object to Klajic’s recent use of the city logo on letters asking for financial support in her reelection bid.

Receiving campaign-related calls on city phone lines is acceptable under campaign laws, said City Atty. Carl Newton, although making outgoing calls would be a violation.

“The limitation is that city resources cannot be used for personal purposes,” said Newton. “I don’t see this as a city expense of substance.”

Boyer, 56, defended his use of the number, saying that he is not using his city office for reelection efforts and that he printed the city number because it is a convenient place to pick up messages.

“Giving out my work phone number and home phone number is typical of what I’ve done for years,” said Boyer. “I’ve never had anyone calling about (the) campaign . . . come in on a city phone line.”

Boyer said he’ll be happy to tell anyone who calls the city regarding his reelection efforts to call him back on his home telephone, but that he has no plans to take the phone number off the billboards.

The placards have not generated any additional phone calls into the city switchboard since they were put up at the end of February, said Debbie Porter, who handles incoming calls to that phone number.

“I haven’t had any more calls for him than normal,” Porter said.

Similar complaints were recently lodged against Klajic, when a mailer that she distributed included a slightly modified version of Santa Clarita’s city logo, positioned on top of her name and title.

Although shaded differently and printed in blue, some critics felt that the symbol of a trail over grass hills and an oak tree is too close to Santa Clarita’s blue, white, green and brown seal.

Unlike Boyer, Klajic was quick to correct the perceived problem.

“We heard about (the criticism) three or four days ago,” said Klajic, 47. “As soon as we did, we trashed all our materials” bearing the logo.

About 900 copies of the letter had been recently mailed to residents, following an earlier mailing of 500 copies that generated no complaints, she said. About 1,000 letters were destroyed after she learned that it was a policy violation, Klajic said.

“I (had) checked to see if there was an ordinance against using the city seal, and there wasn’t,” Klajic said.

Although Santa Clarita has no specific laws prohibiting use of its logo, residents must apply to the city for permission, and Klajic never did, Newton said.

“The city does have the power to control the city seal,” said Newton. “We get a lot of requests for use of the city seal, but we turn most of those down.”

This is the latest in the continuing saga of campaign-material complaints in Santa Clarita’s council race.

More than half of the 13 candidates were tripped up by a city disclosure ordinance passed in December, 1992, requiring that all published or displayed campaign materials list who paid for them.

All three incumbents violated the ordinance by not indicating who financed the materials, including Boyer and Councilwoman Jo Anne Darcy--who approved the ordinance--and Klajic, who had called for even stricter requirements. Challengers Tim Jorgensen, Clyde Smyth and Linda Storli similarly failed to indicate who paid for their placards.

Candidate Fred Heiser brought the issue to the attention of Santa Clarita’s city clerk, prompting the mailing of reminder letters to candidates. Heiser did have the disclosure on his signs, but he violated the ordinance because the typeface was too small.

Only candidate Dennis Farnham correctly followed the legislation, and he took his 50 signs down last week out of concern that he might have been in violation. The race’s five other candidates, including two who dropped out of the race last month, have never posted signs.

More coverage of the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys appears today on B6.