SIMI VALLEY : Reagan Foundation Official to Leave

Charles H. Jelloian, operations director of the private foundation that built the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, said he will leave to pursue other interests and possibly run for political office.

Jelloian, 32, of Northridge said he is not ruling out a bid for Congress, the Assembly or state Senate this year. “I hope that someday political office is in my future,” he said. “I’m not ruling out anything.”

As operations director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation since 1989, Jelloian helped carry out the construction and opening of the $60-million library on a hilltop above Simi Valley.

In November, the foundation’s board of trustees turned the massive mission-style library complex over to the National Archives and Records Administration during a ceremony that included the historic meeting of President Bush and four of his predecessors.

National Archives employees operate a public museum on the site and are sifting through a vast storehouse of White House documents that someday will be made available to the public.

“The library is running smoothly and my job is finished,” Jelloian said. The foundation’s only remaining tasks are to complete its fund-raising and develop a conservative think tank to be called the Ronald Reagan Center for Public Affairs, he said.

“He leaves with the thanks and gratitude of the Reagans and the trustees,” said Cathy Goldberg, spokeswoman for Ronald and Nancy Reagan. “They are grateful for his contribution and wish him well.”

Jelloian is the fifth person to leave the foundation in recent months. Former Reagan White House associates Edwin Meese III, William P. Clark and Martin Anderson were dropped as trustees in the fall. Former Energy Secretary John Herrington resigned from the board a short time later in protest of their dismissal.