Mr. Conservative goes slow-growth; Glendale mayor Jerold Milner presides over a $250 million budget, 1,600 full-time workers, but he is only part-time, making $800 a month; he's also slamming the brakes on rampant growth.

Mr. Conservative goes slow-growth

Glendale City Hall was built in 1940, says a bronze plaque at the main entrace, just as war clouds gathered around the globe.

That was 10 years after Glendale Mayor Jerold Milner was born, into the beginning of the Great Depression, the economic collapse that gripped family and nation until World War II.

"I was an only child," Milner says, speaking from his sunny second-floor office. "My parents wanted more children, but couldn't afford them. I suspect they really couldn't afford me. But they had me, and they took care of me."

From home in hardscrabble Cheyene, Wyo., Milner's father followed jobs to Northern California, where the young Milner grew up. His parents were readers, apolitical, and taught Milner responsibility for self, he says.

After graduation from college, Milner signed on with Pacific Bell - perhaps seeking economic security above all else - and was assigned south, to burgeoning Southern California.

The phone company job Milner kept for 33 years. He never worked for any other company, and then retired - three years ago.

Something else happened too: Ma Bell, indirectly, assigned Milner to politics, beginning in 1963.

"When I first came to Glendale, one of the requirements of Pacific Bell managers was to join a service club. So I joined the Glendale Kiwanis," says Milner. "It is unique - very big, with 240 members. I ran into a guy about my age, mid-30s, Ken Stephens, and he was running for City Council [in 1967]. I worked on his campaign and we won. It was exhilarating. I have worked or run every two years in every Glendale election, whether it be bond issues, school board or whatever, ever since."

Milner became active in Republican circles, and then, on a non-partisan basis, ran himself and won a seat on the five-member Glendale City Council in 1983. He has twice been mayor; from 1985 to 1986, and from 1989 through the present. (The mayoralty rotates among the five council members).

Today, Milner is a man in his element, by self-proclamation: "Glendale is a hotbed of conservative Republicanism," he says, with a look of sublime satisfaction behind his frameless glasses. "Always has been. And I am a conservative Republican." Glendale's high school, notes Milner, is still named after Herbert Hoover, the U.S. president before Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Yet being a conservative, even in Glendale, is a far different job in 1990 than it was in 1967. Or even, says Milner, than in 1985. Congestion is why.

Congestion is why Milner, the self-described conservative from Glendale, the man from hardscrabble Cheyene, the Republican, is about to cut in half the number of units apartment builders can throw up on any particular lot. And that, after cutting development rights by one-third in 1986.

Milner is asked if the downzoning means, in general, that a developer who could have built 15 units on a certain lot in 1985, then could have built only 10 in 1986, and soon will only able to build five on that same lot?

"Oh no," says Milner, another look of satisfaction crossing his face. "It actually works out to about four units."

In 1985, Glendale planned for a permanent maximum of 350,000 residents; the proposed cutbacks will cut the permanent maximum to about 230,000, comments Milner. That means Glendale's population will probably grow by only 10 percent more, before hitting a ceiling - forever.

Even Santa Monica, the city frequently identified as a regulatory-liberal heaven, does not have that kind of growth control.

It has been Glendale's surging population that propelled Milner into the ranks of those calling for - and in his case effectuating - controlled growth. The city had less than 140,000 residents in 1980. Now it may have more than 200,000, perhaps even 210,000 - nobody really knows, says Milner. That's up about 50 percent in a decade.

"We used to believe that about 2.4 people lived in each unit, but now, after a study, we believe it is about 3 people. We have about 70,000 housing units," says Milner. "But I just can't bring myself to say we have more than 200,000 people living here."

Some property owners have complained that Milner and the Glendale City Council have taken away their property rights by downzoning, or at least taken away the ability to make a good profit on their land.

Milner dimisses complaints. "We will reduce the value of their land short-term. But in the long-term, because we are able to manage growth and maintain the quality of life, we will increase the long-term value of their land," he asserts. "And there is supply and demand. With less supply, the value per unit will increase."

Besides, not much opposition to his downzone plan has emerged. "Much of the underdeveloped land is owned by absentee landlords," Milner sniffs.

Milner declares he is free of all constraints except those of the voters. One reason: It cost him all of $9,000 to run for Glendale City Council last time around. The most anyone has ever spent on a Glendale City Council election is perhaps $20,000, he says.

Milner collected a few contributions of $500, but mostly $100 or less for his last election. "If somebody contributes $100 to me, what do I owe him? If somebody is really upset with me, I'll give him his money back," Milner snorts.

In contrast, notes Milner, running for a council district in Los Angeles can cost $1 million. Real estate developers are the biggest contributors to political campaigns in Los Angeles.

Milner's job is also different from that of the Los Angeles official in terms of pay. "I earn only $800 a month, plus $35 for each weekly meeting of the Glendale Redevelopment Agency that I attend," he says. "This is a essentially a volunteer position."

Milner tells a visitor he raised a family in Glendale, has belonged to dozens of local civic groups. He is not a full-time office holder, but a typical citizen looking after local government.

But Glendale has a $250 million budget, and 1,600 full-time employees. To the question, "Should such a large enterprise be run by amateurs?" Milner answers, "We, the City Council, are like a board of directors." Instead of a full-time mayor, Glendale employs a city manager, paid full-time. But the city manager answers to the citizen council.

For all his limits on apartment construction, Milner is pro-business when it comes to approving office space in Glendale. The city has a surfeit of employees but not enough jobs, he explains. "Everyday, 50,000 Glendalians get into 50,000 cars and drive 50,000 separate directions to get to a job."

By approving 1.45 million square feet of new office space, in addition to the 3 million Glendale has today, Milner hopes to reduce traffic. "This will mean less congestion and smog."

Glendale has a lot to offer business, avers Milner. "We have no business license tax, and our electric and water employee tax, and our electric and water rates are among the lowest in Southern California," he says. Additionally, because the city has no general bonded indebtedness, property taxes are low in Glendale also. "The City of Glendale does not owe a cent to anyone."

Glendale's fiscal record is one to be proud of, says Milner. And it fits his own philosophy of responsibility, he says, the same philosophy he, and his wife (now deceased) passed on to their children. It is the philosophy, after all, of Milner's parents, who had only one child because they could not afford more.

It is when talking about family that the conservative Milner reaches full-bloom. "I feel very strongly that one parent should be at home at all times in the first six years of a child's life," he says. "That is when the spiritual, moral and physical growth takes place. And I believe mothers are better equipped to handle the needs of children. I sincerely hope my daughter and daughter-in-law stay home with their children."

His own son, says Milner, was high school validictorian, star athelete and Stanford graduate largely because of the upbringing he received, says Milner.

The topic of single mothers, or mothers working from financial necessity, is made, in some way, unseemly by the time Milner finishes his mini-sermon.

Then he picks up a pair of "dots" - reflectors of the type glued onto roadways - off of his desk. Some terrific force has ripped the two dots off a Glendale street. The glue of the dot's bottoms still has asphalt attached.

PHOTO : `Every day, 50,000 Glendalians get into 50,000 cars and drive 50,000 separate directions to get a job'