$627,000 SPENT DURING EFFORT TO RECALL ZEANAH.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

Spending by both sides in the unsuccessful campaign to recall City Councilwoman Elois Zeanah totaled more than $627,000, newly released documents show.

Most of the money was spent by the committee trying to recall the slow-growth proponent.

Financial statements filed this week say the committee called Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah spent $360,740.57, and collected an additional $138,012.68 in nonmonetary contributions. That amount represents items such as donations of pizza or payment of bills that allowed the campaign to spend its resources elsewhere.

The bulk of the Yes! campaign was financed by Jill Lederer, who owns 10 pizza delivery stores in the Conejo and western San Fernando valleys. Statements show that Lederer donated $390,899.19 in cash, loans and payment of bills to the Yes! campaign.

Although Zeanah crushed the recall effort by a 2-1 margin, Lederer said Tuesday that the effort was still worth it.

``I believe it was if we got more of the truth out,'' she said. ``You can't put a price on the truth.''

Legal fees to get the recall on the ballot caused the price tag to spiral out of control, but Lederer opted not to back down.

``You reach a point with anything where you either walk away or you stand and fight,'' she said. ``And I chose to stand and fight.''

The Committee Against the Recall of Elois, or CARE, spent $90,866.84 to keep Zeanah in office and collected an additional $659.66 in nonmonetary contributions. The money collected included a $50,000 donation from Thousand Oaks lawyer Edward Masry and $16,700 in donations from Zeanah herself.

The other pro-Zeanah group, Residents for Slow Growth/Stop the Recall, spent $16,468.91 on the campaign and collected $2,949.87 in nonmonetary contributions.

The amount of money tossed around in the campaign has led to some talk of campaign finance reform within the city, but Councilwoman Linda Parks, who served as the head of CARE, said no good came of the recall effort.

``It's an incredible, incredible waste of money,'' Parks said. ``It was a terrible time for the whole city. I really can't say that it was for the best in any way, shape or form.''

Among the candidates hoping to replace Zeanah, Dennis Gillette was the top vote-getter. He spent $16,717.32 and was left with $6,718.32 in unpaid debts, although that amount represents a loan he made to his own campaign. He ended his campaign with a balance of $6,202.

Replacement candidate Roni Fenzke had a zero balance on her account, after having spent $1,844 on her campaign.

Candidate David Seagal did not have to file a finance report because he filed an early declaration that he would spend less than $1,000 on his campaign.