Klajic Captures Santa Clarita Council Seat

Slow-growth proponent Jill Klajic made a political comeback in the Santa Clarita Ctiy Council race Tuesday, winning the seat she lost by only 15 votes in the 1994 election.

Meanwhile, in Lancaster, college dean Frank Roberts became the first mayor of the city voted into office by the public.

In Santa Clarita, Klajic saw her victory as a clear one for environmentalists.

“It sends a message that the residents, that the people who live here, want their rights respected,” she said shortly after the final votes were counted. “You can’t just run over them.

“This valley is not for sale.”

Klajic, 49, was a founding member of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment and has long advocated careful scrutiny over land use.

The only incumbent in the race, Jan Heidt, held onto her seat with the second highest number of votes. A bookstore owner, her main issue in the campaign involved fighting gang crime.

t money in the campaign, Valencia High School teacher Frank Ferry came in third, missing out on a seat in his first run for office.

In Santa Clarita, the election campaign was, as usual, focused on growth issues.

This city incorporated eight years ago partly out of frustration with unchecked development, and the issue has only grown more critical as rapid population growth has continued to overload local schools, libraries and parks.

Tuesday’s winners will join a five-member council that has been loathe to accept future development without massive road and other improvements in the hope of preventing the city and surrounding areas from turning into “another San Fernando Valley.”

In Lancaster, Roberts said one of his primary aims as mayor will be to be a peacemaker among often warring members of the City Council.

“I have fond hopes that six to nine months from now, you’ll see a change and we’ll be getting along much better,” he said Tuesday night.

Roberts, 64, is a member of the Lancaster City Council and dean of applied academics at Antelope Valley College. He has been a resident of the Antelope Valley area for 50 years, and stressed during the campaign that he was a “team player” who would work with local businesses to improve the economic climate of the area.

His closest rival in the race was Michael Singer, who was elected to the council two years ago with a campaign critical of Roberts and other established political figures. Singer is a captain in the county Fire Department.

Former City Council member Arnie Rodio was third.

Before this election, the mayor’s position in Lancaster--which officially became a city in 1977--was alternated among council members.

But in 1994, voters in the Antelope Valley’s largest city decided it was time to make the job elective.

The election will not significantly affect operation of Lancaster’s government. Roberts will continue to sit as a member of the City Council, which will remain a five-member body.

The mayor will have only one vote, the same as any council member, and no veto authority. He will receive the same salary as a council member, about $640 a month.

The only difference is that the mayor will serve a two-year term, while City Council members serve four years.

In the only other race in Lancaster, eight candidates were vying for a City Council seat. The easy winner was James Jeffra, 50, a deputy sheriff now on disability because of an on-duty automobile accident.

Jeffra proudly proclaimed himself a one-issue candidate, and that issue was crime. When asked at a forum what he would do for business, he answered, “I firmly believe when you make a place safer to live, you’ll have the pick of industries coming to you.”

David Colker is a Times staff writer. Danica Kirka and Sharon Moeser are special correspondents.

* ELECTION RESULTS: B9