Mary Jillene “Jill” Klajic, a former mayor and city councilwoman for the City of Santa Clarita, scheduled her first book signing at Barnes and Noble in Valencia on Friday, August 25 from 5-7 p.m.

The former College of the Canyons student-turned-mayor created quite a stir during her tenure as a Santa Clarita City Councilwoman. After helping gain the signatures needed to make Santa Clarita a city in 1985, Klajic devoted most of her time in office to fighting developers and protecting environmental concerns.

Her experiences in Santa Clarita seemed to influence her, as did her parents, who are the inspiration for the book, she said.

Now, after being away from Santa Clarita for more than a decade, Klajic is returning for a signing of her new book, “With Dignity.”

“‘With Dignity’ captures the spirit of the time and life of the American farmers in the early 1900s, and those who inhabited the rural Southern Ozark Mountains,” said Klajic. “The book portrays two fictionally poor, but proud families and how they deal with death, adultery, rape, murder and great personal loss, that shatters their otherwise peaceful world.”

The story is largely based off the lives of Klajic’s parents, according to the former mayor, because she was fascinated by how their poor and rural background largely molded their personalities.

“This is a family saga about faith and traditions and pride of the people of that time,” said Klajic. “Where did the strong faith personality and devotion to family come from?”

And while her book takes place in the Ozarks and she now lives in northern California, Klajic is excited to return to her real hometown, Santa Clarita.

“I lived in Santa Clarita for 40 years, and I wrote the first draft here,” Klajic said. “I’m excited to come back and see the people and places I fought so hard for.”

Her passions, goals and people she fought so hard for resulted in her becoming a prominent, and oftentimes, controversial figure in Santa Clarita politics, she explained.

Click here for a link to Jill Klajic’s bio on SCVHistory.com.

“I got the award for the ‘Most Controversial City Council Member,’” said Klajic. “In fact, on my door at City Hall there was a sign that read ‘Developer Slayer.’”

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In her efforts to protect natural ecosystems, Klajic took a two-pronged approach, she said: policy decision and community involvement.

“When they were building the mall, the developers wanted federal money to do the road improvements but I objected because the developers had the money; they just didn’t want to use it,” said Klajic. “So I wrote a letter to Congress saying we could use the money for other things, such as conservation, and the money eventually was denied for the mall roads.”

As for her community involvement, Klajic founded the SCV Pride Committee, an organized effort once a year that would help clean up litter and trash in the Santa Clara River and local environment.

“The main purpose of Pride was to pick up trash and bring the environmental issues to the forefront of the conversation,” said Klajic. “But it also helped us bring the four communities, (Saugus, Valencia, Canyon Country and Newhall), together for a common purpose.”

And even after the councilwoman’s retiring and moving north, the Santa Clarita community still carries on her tradition of annually picking up trash, but the event has been co-opted as part of the city’s River Rally.

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One of Klajic’s more controversial moments during her stretch as an elected official involved the city’s mayoral rotation, which resulted in allegations of a thrown paperweight during a City Council meeting.

“Jo Anne Darcy had given out paperweights as gifts to the council members, but on that same day she changed her vote with (Jan Heidt) and I last minute,” said Klajic. “So, I took my paperweight and I slid it back to her.”

“It hit her papers and items on her desk went flying,” Klajic said. “But Jo Anne and I liked each other outside of our politics and I think it’s just been made a bigger deal than it was.”

Klajic’s book signing is set to take place at Barnes and Noble, located at 23630 Valencia Blvd, on Friday, August 25 from 5-7 p.m.

Jill Klajic is a former Santa Clarita resident who once served as a Santa Clarita City Council member from 1990-1994 and 1996-2000. Along with serving on the council, Klajic was also Mayor in 1992.

For more information, visit Klajic’s website here.

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