THOUSAND OAKS : Woman Says She’s Owed Campaign Pay

A Simi Valley woman who worked on Trudi Loh’s supervisorial campaign last fall appeared in Ventura County Municipal Court on Monday, asking for $3,000 she said Loh owes her for promised salary.

Court Commissioner David Long said he will issue a ruling in a few days.

Loh told Long that the campaign worker, Marge Chamberlain, was considered a volunteer throughout the campaign and that she never promised her a $250-a-week salary, as Chamberlain alleged in a small claims suit.

Loh is now in the last few weeks of a campaign for the empty seat on the Thousand Oaks City Council.

Loh said that her campaign consultant, Cynthia Wheland, with San Francisco-based Campaign Management Productions, did discuss a paid fund-raising position with Chamberlain.

According to Loh, Wheland asked Chamberlain for a written outline proposing what her objectives would be as fund-raiser for the supervisor’s campaign. Wheland told Loh she never received that outline from Chamberlain, so Chamberlain was never hired.

Instead, Loh said Chamberlain did mostly clerical work, stuffing envelopes and updating computer lists.

Loh told Long that she met Chamberlain at a local coffee shop in March to discuss the dispute, which she said is politically motivated.

“She began yelling at me at Starbuck’s,” Loh said.

After the hearing, Loh said: “She made no claim about not being paid until I decided to run for City Council. . . . She could just have easily sued Ms. Wheland, but Ms. Wheland is not in the middle of a political campaign.”

Loh said that Chamberlain is close friends with the wives of land-use attorney Chuck Cohen and his law partner, Leonard Alexander.

Cohen has been linked with the group Citizens to Save Our City, a pro-business group that said earlier in the election season that it intended to target Loh with “bad guy politicking.”

Chamberlain acknowledged her friendships with Cohen’s and Alexander’s wives but added that Loh is also friends with the two women.