Women’s Conference Made Money for Campbell’s Wife

State Sen. William Campbell’s nonprofit conference on women paid $165,000 to a firm owned by the senator’s wife and one of his top aides to organize the meeting for 14,000 women last year in Anaheim, state records show.

The payments, which represented more than one-third of the conference’s total expenses, have prompted the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the attorney general’s office to review the conference’s relationship with Campbell’s wife, Margene, and his Orange County field coordinator, Karen L. Smith.

And the federal Small Business Administration, which has helped finance the annual conferences since 1985, may soon sever its ties with the event for several reasons, including the payments to Smith and Margene Campbell, an official said.

State records also show that the two organizations that put on the annual women’s conference and a separate annual event for small businesses paid $96,000 to three Campbell aides, including Smith, between 1984 and 1986.

Campbell, a Hacienda Heights Republican, refused to comment when asked about the payments on the Senate floor Monday. Efforts to reach Margene Campbell were unsuccessful Monday. And Smith referred calls to Campbell’s Sacramento office.

Guests Included Oprah

Campbell has been holding the women’s conferences since 1984, offering career tips and self-awareness advice to thousands of women. Among the guests who have spoken at the events are Jihan Sadat, the former first lady of Egypt, and talk show host Oprah Winfrey. The conferences have been criticized by feminists who contend that the events are a political show by Campbell to hide the fact that he opposes women’s rights causes in the state Senate.

The 1987 conference, held April 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Hilton, had expenses totaling $564,422, according to Internal Revenue Service forms on file with the state Registry of Charitable Trusts. Of that amount, $165,000 went in “consulting fees” to West Coast Seminars, a firm owned by Smith and Margene Campbell.

According to the Orange County clerk’s office, Smith and Campbell formed their partnership on April 17, 1987--four days before the conference. They reported the formation of the business when they filed a notice on May 7, 1987, to use the name “West Coast Seminars.” It is not clear what share of the partnership is owned by Margene Campbell. If she is an equal partner with Smith, then Sen. Campbell’s community property share of the conference’s payments to West Coast Seminars would be more than $40,000.

The state records also show that Smith and two other Campbell aides, chief of staff Jerome Haleva and secretary Mary Ann Filker, also made money from the conferences in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

Smith, who is paid $41,544 by the state to work as Campbell’s Orange County field coordinator, was paid $46,500 for the 1986 women’s conference, $10,000 for the 1985 conference and $5,000 for the 1984 conference. Smith was paid $11,000 for her work on small business conferences sponsored by Campbell in 1984 and 1986.

Haleva was paid $15,000 for the 1986 women’s conference. His state salary is $93,840.

Filker was paid $2,000 for the 1985 women’s conference and $1,000 for the 1984 event. Filker, who declined comment Monday, was paid $4,500 for the small business conferences from 1984 through 1986. She is paid $30,360 by the state.

No records are yet available from the 1988 conference. There are no records showing payments to Margene Campbell before 1987.

Looking to Sever Ties

Complaints about the conferences from Orange County women’s rights activists have prompted a U.S. Senate committee that oversees the Small Business Administration to question the agency’s role in putting on the events. Steve Muhlhauser, assistant regional administrator for the Small Business Administration, said the agency may soon sever its ties with the annual conference for several reasons.

“The more we look into this whole thing, the more we wonder about the relationship and if they (Margene Campbell and Smith) were benefiting off the senator’s conferences,” Muhlhauser said. He said he considers the relationship a “potential conflict of interest.”

Muhlhauser said the Small Business Administration has provided postage and printing worth an estimated $243,739 to the women’s conferences since 1985, including $62,761 for the 1987 event and $59,300 this year.

” In 1988, we were looking at easing ourselves away,” he said. “We had helped precipitate a successful conference for women, and we felt it was important that we did not have to act as a catalyst any longer. It could be weaned entirely from us.”

Besides the Small Business Administration grants, attendance fees and corporate sponsorship covered expenses for the conference.

Sandra Michioku, a spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission, said Monday that the watchdog agency is reviewing the conference payments to determine whether all payments to Campbell’s wife and his aides were properly reported on annual statements of economic interests.

Reviewing Allegations

“We’re aware of the allegations, and we are reviewing it,” Michioku said.

Forms filed by Sen. Campbell, Haleva and Smith appear to show that the three have reported their income from the conference on their state-required disclosure forms. Haleva reported his $15,000 payment one year late, contending in a letter attached to the report that the money was left off due to an oversight.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Peter Shack said the Justice Department also is reviewing the matter. But Shack said it appears that the conferences, which have filed reports with the state as charitable organizations, are neither charities nor nonprofit businesses and thus may not even be required to disclose their financial records.

Because donations or payments to the conferences are not tax deductible, Shack said, their financial affairs are subject to much less scrutiny than “true charities.”

“Anytime someone sends us an inquiry, we do look at it,” Shack said. “But it’s not an investigation.”

Vivian Hall, an Irvine educator who has been a critic of Campbell’s conference since it began, said Monday that the latest revelations only make her more determined to protest the event.

“We’re outraged,” Hall said. “What started out as a feeling that Sen. Campbell . . . was exploiting women went to the next stage where we discovered he was getting all this money from the Small Business Administration, and now it’s turned out that this largess is benefiting his wife and his aide.”

Janice Graham, Campbell’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 7 general election, said she intends to use the disclosure as a campaign tool against Campbell.

“Why should they benefit because of their relationship with Campbell?” she asked.

Times staff writer Andrea Ford contributed to this report.