By Mike Harris Thursday, September 11th, 2025

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Sept. 8 and updated on Sept. 11 to include more details on the settlement.

A settlement has ended a nearly four-year legal battle between former congressman Elton Gallegly and California Lutheran University over a public service center named after him.

The parties announced Sept. 8 that they have resolved the breach of contract lawsuit Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, and his wife Janice filed against the Thousand Oaks University in 2021.

“Through open dialogue, the Gallegly’s and CLU have resolved their differences and are focused on the shared values that originally brought them together to create the university’s Elton and Janice Gallegly Center for Public Service and Civic Engagement,” the parties said in a joint press release.

The lawsuit alleged that Cal Lutheran had failed to fully establish the Gallegly Center on its campus, which contained 26 years’ worth of congressional archives.

Also named as defendants were former CLU presidents Chris Kimball and Lori Varlotta, who were dismissed from the case in July.

Varlotta, who left Cal Lutheran in May 2024 and is now president of Antioch University’s five campuses nationwide, including one in Santa Barbara, told the Business Times Sept. 8 that she has mixed emotions about the settlement.

“On the one hand, I am glad that this four-year multimillion-dollar suit is over,” she said.

“On the other hand, I am troubled that the settlement came at the 11 ½ hour (as) by all accounts, CLU was primed to win this case,” Varlotta said.

Details of the settlement were not released.

Elton Gallegly said in a statement that he and his wife “are grateful for the honest conversations and mutual goodwill that brought us to this resolution.

“We have confidence in CLU’s leadership, its stewardship of philanthropic contributions, and its ongoing dedication to civic engagement and educating the next generation of public servants and leaders,” he said.

Gallegly is Ventura County’s longest-serving member of Congress — from 1987 through 2013. He was the first elected mayor of Simi Valley, which was incorporated in 1969. 

His lawsuit, which also alleged breach of fiduciary duty, sought a full accounting of how the university had used the more than $1 million raised by the Gallegly’s to support the center.

Cal Lutheran President John Nunes said in the press release that the Gallegly Center will now have a “renewed energy and focus.

“The center has the potential to provide a much-needed forum that fosters civil discourse and encourages the exploration of differing viewpoints where students, faculty, and the CLU community can engage in thoughtful, respectful dialogue on a wide range of topics, including socially, politically, and culturally sensitive issues,” Nunes said.

He added, “We recognize Elton and Janice Gallegly as individuals with an enduring commitment to public service.” 

It’s possible that a replica of Gallegly’s Washington, D.C. office will be restored at the center located in the university’s Pearson Library, but details were not available.

In a major point of contention in the case, Cal Lutheran removed the model office in December 2021.

It had been intended to be the center’s main attraction, but Varlotta said at the time it had been taken down to make room for Gallegly’s physical archives.

The settlement was announced some six weeks after the Gallegly’s asked Ventura County Superior Court Judge Maureen Houska to dismiss their lawsuit.

Kimball and Varlotta were dismissed from the case at the time, leaving Cal Lutheran as the remaining defendant. The request was seen as a possible precursor to the announcement of a settlement.

The request came seven months after Ventura County Superior Court Judge Henry Walsh, in December 2024, handed the university a win, reversing his intended decision that there was a contractual basis for the establishment of Gallegly’s replica office.

In March, university attorneys filed a summary judgment motion, seeking dismissal of the case.

Houska, who succeeded the retired Walsh on the case, was set to rule on the motion Sept. 25.

Varlotta, CLU’s first woman president, has long contended that the Gallegly’s and their allies orchestrated a media campaign to publicly discredit her. 

She was replaced by Nunes, named CLU interim president in May 2024, after her contract was not renewed; that decision followed a vote of no-confidence by faculty.

Nunes was appointed president earlier this year.

Upon being dismissed from the case, Varlotta issued a press release calling the alleged campaign a “politically fueled character assassination.”

The decision to remove Gallegly’s replica office and the subsequent lawsuit had an adverse impact on Cal Lutheran fundraising and disrupted relations between the university and a number of institutions, including the nearby Reagan Library & Presidential Museum.  

The decision to remove Gallegly’s replica office and the subsequent lawsuit had an adverse impact on Cal Lutheran fundraising and disrupted relations between the university and a number of institutions.

They included the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, which raises funds to support the Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in nearby Simi Valley. 

Replica offices and centers dedicated to recent former members of Congress are a tradition in the Central Coast region.

The late Robert Lagomarsino, a Ventura Republican, has a replica office at the Broome Library at CSU Channel Islands; the late Walter Capps, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, has a center named after him at UC Santa Barbara.

CLU and the Gallegly’s said in the Sept. 8 release that they “are united in their belief in the vital mission of the university and the role of the university’s Gallegly Center in shaping future generations of leaders, thinkers, and changemakers.”

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