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FIRST TERM AS MAYOR 203

of one entry in “Tell It to the Signal.” Soon people began to call about rude
employees. They were upset because they could not change companies. We had
not done enough to educate the public. We had not explained that if we put the
system out to bid there was nothing to prevent our being given a lowball price;
and that under state law the existing companies would continue to provide service
for five more years. It was desirable to have the existing companies continue to
provide services, knowing they would not soon be out of business. The most
valuable asset a trash company has is its contracts with cities and counties.
Without contracts they cannot borrow to buy new equipment, and service
deteriorates. After I left the council in 1998 the new council did what we should
have done. They audited the companies to find out why our rates were higher
than the rates in other cities of comparable population. I felt that the higher rates
were justified because our city was more spread out. It took the drivers more time
to complete their routes. However, we had not asked for an audit to prove it.
Waste Management did get into the city in the long term. They bought out Blue
Barrel and Santa Clarita Disposal. 7
The Census Bureau released figures stating that Santa Clarita had grown
65.8% in ten years, from 66,730 to 110,642, the eighth fastest growing city in the
nation. There were problems with both numbers. The census tracts were
different in 1980 and 1990, so the 1980 figures were extrapolations. The 1990
figure seemed way low. For the entire valley the figures were 79,015 and
158,100, an increase of 100.1%. Thus the area outside the city had grown from
12,285 to 47,458 in ten years. 8
On February 10, 1991, the Daily News projected that growth would slow as
a result of either Gloria Molina or Art Torres being elected to the Board of
Supervisors in a federally mandated election. Meanwhile, Mike Antonovich
expressed concern that Poe’s development of Stevenson Ranch was being held up
because of our lawsuit. He explained, “Failure to get this project going could
mean the loss of nearly $11 million in road and traffic improvements.” What he
did not say was that these improvements came with more traffic than they could
handle.
The city agreed to put in $2.7 million in infrastructure improvements to attract
the Price Club, now Costco, to one of Jack Shine’s properties. Jan Heidt and Jill
Klajic voted no. Jan owned a small business, One for the Books, on Lyons
Avenue in Newhall, and complained about what the big companies were doing
to the small ones. I understood her concern, but had some difficulty with the idea
of preserving small business at the cost of making everyone in the valley pay
more money at the cash register. The economy was changing, and we would have
to change with it. At the time it was not apparent what they were doing to wages.
We were going through a state water shortage in 1991. California had cut
back the amount of water we could import by fifty per cent. This would not result
in a crisis because of our ground water supply. However, over reliance on ground
water would cut quality, and there was always the problem that we really did not
know the extent of our resources.