CITY ATTORNEY HANDS BACK COMPLAINTS; FILING PARTIES TO PURSUE GRIEVANCES FROM ELECTION.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Daily News Staff Writer

City Attorney Mark Sellers said Thursday his office will not investigate a pair of complaints alleging violations of the local campaign finance law but will instead return them to the filing parties.

City Councilman Dan Del Campo and resident Daryl Reynolds each said they will pursue the complaints on their own.

``I have returned those matters in essence to the two complaining parties and will leave it to their sound discretion, judgment and wisdom whether to drop the matter or to forward it to some other agency, whether it be the Fair Political Practices Commission or the district attorney,'' Sellers said. ``I made the decision because I did not want to imply to anybody that any of those complaints had merit.''

Seller's decision came more than two months after Del Campo and Reynolds claimed wrongdoing in the November election. Sellers said it would be a conflict of interest for him to handle the matter because he reports to Del Campo and the four other council members.

Del Campo, while running for office, filed a complaint with the city claiming that businesswoman Jill Lederer had failed to report she donated money for a hit piece against him and two running mates. Lederer later filed the proper paperwork with the city clerk, showing she made a loan of $1,083 for the mailer.

During the same time, Reynolds filed a complaint stating Del Campo failed to report he received pro bono legal work from local attorney Ed Masry.

``I am very disappointed that this has happened,'' said Reynolds, a member of the former city Campaign Reform Committee. ``I sure would like to proceed to do something because I think it was wrong not to report the in-kind donation of the attorney's time.''

Sellers sent letters to the two parties Wednesday, saying it would be improper for him to get involved.

``I didn't want to get involved at all because of the conflict I had, and I wanted to entirely recuse this office from any involvement,'' Sellers said. ``I think that was the proper thing to do because the people involved really are my boss, and to investigate, even if it's the actions of your boss, raises a conflict.''

Del Campo said Sellers' conflict of interest is his friendship with Lederer, who owns several Domino's Pizza franchises in Thousand Oaks. Sellers has indicated that Lederer is a friend but has maintained the conflict stems from pursuing claims involving the council.

``He serves on a number of boards or commissions with her,'' Del Campo said. ``Now since when are friends allowed to break the law?''

Del Campo said the complaint should have been sent to the district attorney or state attorney general.

Sellers said he has talked to the District Attorney's Office.

``They said, `yeah, sure send it over,' '' he said. ``There was no commitment, and I decided not to send it over.''

Del Campo pushed Sellers into pursuing the complaint in December. Sellers at the time thought the matter was resolved, because Del Campo had dropped his lawsuit against Lederer when he assumed office.

``I did the right thing dropping the civil matter,'' Del Campo said. ``But I do expect due process of law.

``I am disappointed with Mr. Sellers that he has not forwarded this to the state attorney general,'' he said. ``I will be going to the state attorney general with this thing. I can assure you it will be no later than the 18th (of this month) because I will be in Sacramento at that time, and if I have to hand-deliver the complaint, I will do so personally.''