KMAX: News of the West

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) Before he knew Arnold Schwarzenegger the governor-elect, Frank Dino knew Schwarzenegger the landlord.

Dino, who rents space for his hair salon at the Main Street complex the actor owns, said he hopes the actor will bring the same business acumen to the governor's office that his leasing company has demonstrated with tenants.

``Arnold's tough, but he's firm,'' said Dino, 48, of Culver City. ``They're tough negotiators, but I think they're fair businesspeople.''

As Schwarzenegger prepares to take office, he faces expectations big and small from voters across the state, including some of those who know him best the tenants and customers at the cheery, open-air shopping center that also houses his campaign office.

Dino listed his hopes for the Schwarzenegger administration as he gave one of his clients, Mary Conte of Beverly Hills, a $165 hair coloring and cut. He said he hopes Schwarzenegger will end a workers' compensation system that costs him $25,000 a year, even though none of his 15 employees or 12 contractors has ever filed a claim.

``The way they have it set up now, businesses that don't even use it are paying astronomical amounts of money,'' said Dino, a registered independent.

Conte, who gives her age as ``in the 40s,'' said she is a Beverly Hills producer of small independent films. She hopes Schwarzenegger will reduce taxes and regulations on small businesses and use his Hollywood connections to get productions to shoot in California instead of Canada or Mexico.

But she also wants him to get involved in much smaller issues, including persuading the Motion Picture Association of America to reverse its new ban on special videos and DVDs for Oscar voters.

What she doesn't want, she says, are more social services. She said Gov. Gray Davis' administration spent too heavily on adding children to the Healthy Families program, which provided medical insurance.

``You can't just give people handouts,'' she said. ``It's better to put people on a track where they are helping themselves. ... Social services sounds pretty flaky to me.''

Schwarzenegger's blockbuster personality permeates the shopping center a few blocks from the Santa Monica pier. A mural of the Terminator shooting rounds of ammo graces the wall alongside the elevators to his second-floor office, and a ``Join Arnold'' sign rests in the window of a cigar store.

Schwarzenegger no longer owns Schatzi on Main, a restaurant at the complex, but pictures of him still adorn the walls. Charley Temmel, a native of the actor's hometown of Graz, Austria, who took over the restaurant five years ago, said Schwarzenegger rarely misses the cigar nights held there on the first Monday of each month.

Dining on wienerschnitzel on Schatzi's patio, Schwarzenegger voters Nick Thomas and Carl Dolan said the new governor's top priorities should be rolling back the state vehicle registration fee and repealing a law signed by Davis allowing drivers licenses for illegal immigrants.

Thomas, 51, said he expected Schwarzenegger to keep his promise to repeal this year's tripling of the car tax as soon as he takes office, but wasn't sure how that could be done.

``He would have to at least demonstrate his willingness by calling for a special session or something. I just don't know anything about state government,'' said Thomas, a writer who described himself as a former ``radical liberal.''

Sipping a beer at Schatzi's bar, Conan Leary laughed over sharing a name with the barbarian Schwarzenegger played onscreen. Leary moved from San Francisco to St. Louis a few months ago while between pipefitter jobs, but made the trip back to California to be here for Schwarzenegger's win.

``He gives you the feeling of what it was like in the 70s and 80s when the country was going to the moon,'' he said. ``I really feel like it's a special moment, in a special time.''

Dino, the hair salon owner, said Schwarzenegger doesn't need to fulfill every voter's wishes to be a success.

``If Arnold follows through on one-eighth of what he's been talking about, the state's gonna be better off,'' he said.