WESTLAKE VILLAGE : Councilwoman to Resign After Term

Declaring that she has never liked politics, Westlake Village City Councilwoman Bonnie Klove, a 72-year-old former ballerina who has served on the panel since the city’s founding, said Thursday that she will step down when her term expires in November.

Klove said that her years on the council were rewarding in some ways, but added, “if you ask me right out, did you enjoy being a politician, the answer is no.

“I will be so relieved to be free from that pressure,” said Klove, an Oklahoma native who traveled the country with an all-girl revue before settling in California. “I am not a politician, and I have not enjoyed it.”

Klove first took office in 1981, a lifelong Republican who nonetheless entered office as an advocate for rent control at the mobile home park in which she lived.

Fellow City Councilman Ken Rufener, a frequent Klove ally, said the mobile home park became a source of trouble for Klove when, a half-dozen years later, she supported a compromise with the landlord that allowed some tenants to buy their land. The deal was hotly debated and marked the most controversial point in Klove’s political career, Rufener said. Tenants who felt they’d been betrayed went so far as to call for her impeachment, he said.

Klove was reelected. She said she’s proud of services established while in office, including the city’s meals on wheels program and the library.

Klove said she thinks the council needs new blood, but City Manager Ray Taylor said as of yet, no one has nominated a replacement to run for her seat.

Taylor said he suspected Klove may have disliked politics, “but you’d never know it from the energy and enthusiasm she brings to that position.”