WESTMINSTER : Councilwoman Still Owes, Adviser Says

A former campaign manager for Councilwoman Lyn Gillespie said Wednesday that he will ask a court to rule her in contempt for missing a recent debtor’s hearing to discuss her delinquent $10,000 campaign debt from 1988.

“She has never paid one dime of her debt,” said Harvey Englander, who managed Gillespie’s successful 1988 campaign and alleges that she is using illness as an excuse to dodge court appearances.

Gillespie, who said she has been found to have Epstein-Barr, or chronic fatigue, syndrome, said her doctor has warned her against working and making court appearances. She has continued to attend City Council meetings.

“It’s not like it’s something I’m faking. I can’t work,” said Gillespie, 35. “My doctor would love for me to quit the council, (but) I feel that council meetings are my primary responsibility.”

Englander, 41, president of Costa Mesa-based Campaign Management Inc., estimated that Gillespie owes him more than $16,000, including interest on her debt and legal expenses.

“She’s been at almost every council meeting, but she’s too sick to be at a debtor hearing. That’s particularly frightening when its a member of the City Council doing this,” Englander said.

He said that at the debtor’s hearing two weeks ago, Gillespie “would have had to show how she gets her income, show bills and checkbooks, show where her bank accounts are. We probably would have taken her car, repossessed it.”

Englander also said his attorney had filed papers to garnishee her $500-a-month council salary. “She keeps calling me a big meanie for doing this to her, when in reality all I’m trying to do is get paid.”

Gillespie called Englander’s legal tactics “harassment” and said he has rejected her attempts to arrange payments. “I’ve never said I’m not going to pay him,” she said.