Heidt Won’t Run Again for Santa Clarita Council : Politics: Official says she’s ‘done enough’ and discounts rumors that she plans bid for seat in Congress.
SANTA CLARITA — Jan Heidt, who has served on the City Council since Santa Clarita incorporated in 1987, formally announced Monday that she will not seek reelection in April and discounted rumors that she is planning to run for Congress.
“Well, I’ve done enough,†Heidt said simply of her decision. She spoke in a phone interview from her Newhall bookstore, where she intends to concentrate her energy full-time once her second four-year term is up.
“I’m real sorry to lose her,†said Lynne Plambeck, vice president of the Santa Clarita Valley Organization for Planning the Environment. “She was a real voice for the community.â€
Known for her unabashed style, as Mayor Jo Anne Darcy put it, Heidt had made her mark on the council as an advocate for the little guy, someone who was not afraid to shoot from the hip when necessary. “She never failed to get the underdog’s point across,†Darcy said. “She was never afraid to represent any line of issue.â€
As a councilwoman, Heidt had taken on a full spectrum of key issues, from fighting developments planned in the unincorporated territory surrounding the city to helping organize a city staff when Santa Clarita pulled away from county control in 1987. She represented Santa Clarita on a variety of government boards and also lobbied transit officials to bring Metrolink to the Santa Clarita Valley.
“Every time I see a Metrolink train, I get a chill,†Heidt said. Metrolink built its first station in Santa Clarita in October, 1992.
Heidt is also famous for having placed an unlicensed peddler who was selling his wares in front of her bookstore under citizen’s arrest and for later getting into a small dispute with a parade protester who had held a placard with unfavorable remarks about her, Darcy said.
Even before her days as an elected official, Heidt was a spirited community activist. In the late 1970s, Heidt spearheaded a fight against a hazardous waste dump in the Santa Clarita Valley. At one memorable public hearing, about 1,000 residents all wore face masks in protest. The dump proposal was defeated.
Heidt also fervently opposes the construction of a landfill in Elsmere Canyon and believes that the city can win its war against the dump’s developers. “I think if we can hold it off another six or seven years, we’ll be OK,†she said.
Aside from planning issues, such as Elsmere, Heidt said there is little else for her to do, that her work on the council is done.
“I really think there are other challenges,†Heidt said. “I’m a builder, not a caretaker.â€
Heidt said she would like to spend more time on her bookstore, One for the Books, and with her family. Also, with the opening of a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Valencia, Heidt said running her shop “will require some effort.â€
Heidt’s announcement will open a second slot on the five-member City Council. George Pederson has previously said he will run for state assembly.
Planning Commissioner Louis Brathwaite said Monday that he is very seriously considering running for one of the vacant seats. Laurene Weste, a parks commissioner, has also been mentioned as a possible candidate, but Weste said she has yet to decide.
Candidates must register between mid-December and mid-January to run in the April, 1996, election.
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