ACTIVIST QUESTIONS CANDIDATE'S LEGAL AID.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

A campaign-reform proponent has filed a complaint questioning whether City Council candidate Dan Del Campo violated the law by not reporting his attorney's pro bono legal services as campaign contributions.

Daryl Reynolds, a 27-year resident who sat on the Citizens' Blue Ribbon Campaign Finance Reform Committee, said Del Campo should have reported the legal services volunteered by Westlake Village attorney Edward Masry in campaign finance disclosure forms.

``I see it as Dan Del Campo getting in-kind attorney contributions and advice that should be reported,'' Reynolds said.

The campaign finance law was passed in August, limiting individual contributions and in-kind contributions to $250 per candidate or cause, and requiring any committee that spends more than $500 to report its expenditures to the city.

Masry donated his services earlier this month following the release of a flier that leveled personal attacks against Del Campo and his political allies. The attorney filed a lawsuit last week against the company that distributed the flier, pressing the owner to disclose his client's name.

Thousand Oaks businesswoman Jill Lederer was named as its sole funder. Since then, Thousand Oaks resident James Lee Henson has stepped forward as the sole author.

But Masry maintains that he was acting to defend Del Campo's personal and public rights - not to forward his political campaign - when he pursued the publishers of what he calls a libelous flier.

``I donated my services not for Dan but for the principle that this type of stuff has to stop in Thousand Oaks,'' said Masry.

City attorneys said Friday they will begin an investigation into Reynolds' complaint, just as they began one into a separate complaint filed by Del Campo earlier this week.

That investigation will look into whether Lederer violated local and state campaign laws by failing to disclose the $1,803 loan she made to James Lee Henson to print and distribute the controversial campaign flier.

Henson, who lives in Thousand Oaks, maintains he is the sole author of the leaflet and that Lederer's only involvement was her willingness to foot the bill.

``I don't care if it takes me the rest of my life, I will pay her back,'' said Henson, who this week founded a one-man political committee, Citizens Who Care, to oppose Clean Sweep slate candidates Del Campo, Wayne Possehl and Laura Lee Custodio.