THE MAXWELL CONNECTION

Over the years, Michael B. Montgomery has faced particularly troublesome conflict-of-interest questions as a result of his relationship with developer David Mink Maxwell. Maxwell had personal business dealings with Montgomery and also brought projects before redevelopment agencies that employed Montgomery. Among the examples: Maxwell’s firm, Staff Development Co., had five projects in Irwindale, where Montgomery was attorney to the city’s redevelopment agency. In Huntington Park, Maxwell’s firm had agreements to develop an industrial park while Montgomery was an official. City records show that Montgomery hired the lawyer-son of one of Maxwell’s top executives to work as assistant redevelopment agency counsel. Montgomery was Maxwell’s attorney on one El Dorado County project and Maxwell’s co-developer on another. As Maxwell’s lawyer, Montgomery helped persuade county officials to create a redevelopment agency near Placerville. Maxwell had purchased some blighted property and wanted to get the county’s financial help to build a high-tech industrial park on it. In a separate El Dorado County deal, Montgomery and Maxwell said they each put up $25,000 to buy land to build a shopping center. Record show that 10 months after Maxwell’s firm bought the property in 1979, a half interest in the property was deeded to a company owned by Montgomery and his friend, appraiser Lawrence D. Brown, who appraised most of the property condemned for Maxwell’s projects in Irwindale and Huntington Park. Montgomery and Maxwell as co-venturers also made project proposals to redevelopment agencies in Florida and Arizona. Both projects were rejected.