Campbell Inquiry Near Settlement : Overcharge: Firm of ex-senator’s wife would have to repay at least $10,000 for consulting services to her husband’s women’s conferences.

The state attorney general’s office is close to a settlement with the wife of former state Sen. William Campbell that would force her firm to repay at least $10,000 for consulting services to her husband’s annual women’s conferences.

Margene Campbell or her firm will have to reimburse the amount to the Campbell’s Conference on Women because independent studies show the nonprofit entity was overcharged for the consulting work, said Carole Ann Kornblum, assistant attorney general in charge of the charitable trust division.

Kornblum declined to specify the amount, but confirmed that it is more than $10,000.

She also said that the investigation of payments made to Margene Campbell as a consultant to the conferences has taken more than a year and a half because of the need to order independent evaluations of how much the consulting work was worth.

“That’s the hard part of it, finding the value that would have been paid under an arms-length transaction,” Kornblum said. “We have to find a measure of what would have been fair. That’s part of what is taking so long.”

Reached earlier this week, Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights)--who has since left office to become president of the California Manufacturers Assn.--declined comment on the proposed settlement.

“Is there a settlement?” he joked.

Jack Quinn, Los Angeles attorney for the nonprofit conference, also confirmed Tuesday that the entity would receive payment of more than $10,000, but he characterized the payment as a settlement of a contract dispute.

“Quite frankly, it has nothing to do with payment, overpayment or anything of that nature,” he said.

The state attorney general’s office began an investigation into the payments after newspaper stories in 1988 revealed that Campbell’s wife and staff members received payment from the nonprofit women’s conferences, which became popular annual events by offering tips on personal development, careers and “life enrichment.”

The conferences, attended by as many as 14,000 people, originated in 1984 and were organized on government time by Campbell’s staff. Featured speakers have included Jihan Sadat, the former first lady of Egypt, and television talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Campbell’s wife and a former Orange County staff person, Karen L. Smith, formed a consulting firm, West Coast Seminars of Laguna Niguel, four days before the 1987 conference and were paid $165,000 for setting up the meeting. The fee amounted to 30% of the expenses for the event.

The 1988 conference in Anaheim netted the consulting firm $200,000, more than 40% of the expenses for the three-day event, according to records filed with the state’s Registry of Charitable Trust.

Revelations of the payments also prompted the federal Small Business Administration to ask William Campbell to repay $49,300 in government loans for the events--money Campbell has yet to pay back. The agency wanted repayment because it contends that the former state senator violated an oral agreement on the fee that he was to pay Smith as coordinator of the conferences, according to a report released last year by the General Accounting Office. Smith left Campbell’s office payroll last May.

Quinn said the 1988 conference was the last one run by the nonprofit organization.

The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission is also probing charges that William Campbell and his former top aide, Jerome M. Haleva, failed to disclose the gift of free limousine service during the 1988 National Republican Convention, as well as Haleva’s intervention on a state contract for a Campbell campaign contributor who had earlier given the aide a $20,000 low-interest personal loan. Haleva is now a lobbyist.

Campbell left office in late December after serving more than 20 years in the Legislature.