WESTMINSTER : Gillespie Settles With Campaign Manager

Councilwoman Lyn Gillespie has paid off a $15,000 debt to her former campaign manager, one month after her car was impounded for auction.

On Friday, Gillespie’s attorney delivered a cashier’s check to Harvey Englander, who managed her successful 1988 council campaign, ending a two-year legal battle over how much money Gillespie owed Englander for his services. The check covered the original debt, plus interest and legal fees.

As a result, Gillespie’s 1988 Ford Bronco, which was impounded during a council meeting last month and was to be auctioned this week, has been returned. Also, she will once again receive her full $500-a-month council salary, of which $105-a-month was to be paid to Englander under a court order.

“I feel very good. I’m very pleased to get the money I was owed, which she said I wasn’t owed,” Englander, president of Costa Mesa-based Campaign Management Inc., said Monday. “I’m very sorry it had to take all this to get the money, but that was her doing, not mine. She could have paid $12,000 (the amount of the original debt) a couple years ago.”

Gillespie, 35, said she is happy the fight is over but stuck to her claim that she was forced into paying for services that were not rendered.

“(To pay) anything over zero is more than I wanted, but I feel quite comfortable with it because he didn’t get everything he wanted,” Gillespie said. “Still, he got more than he deserved.”

A warrant was issued for Gillespie’s arrest after she missed a May court date, but she appeared in court in June and was released on her own recognizance after promising to appear at a July 15 hearing. She said she missed the earlier hearing because she suffers from Epstein-Barr syndrome, or chronic fatigue, and was advised by her doctor to avoid the stress of court appearances. Englander alleged that she was using the illness to dodge the legal system.