New Council Replaces City Attorney With Activist : Politics: Interim chief Michael Montgomery represents powerful citizens group. Former mayor says appointment is ‘a farce and an insult.’

In a stunning display of a recent shift in power, the new majority on the Diamond Bar City Council fired the city attorney Tuesday night and hired as his temporary replacement a lawyer who has sued the city several times on behalf of a citizens group.

Michael Montgomery, longtime lawyer for Diamond Bar Citizens to Protect Country Living--which has led two referendum drives against the city’s General Plan and filed several suits against the city--will serve a six-month term as interim city attorney.

Montgomery also represents Bill Gross, a local resident who has sued former Mayor Gary Miller for slander in a countersuit to Miller’s unsuccessful attempt this fall to sue Gross and two other citizens for libel.

Miller and Councilwoman Phyllis Papen, the former mayor pro tem, have lost power on the council in the wake of the November election defeat of John Forbing and Dexter MacBride, who stepped down Tuesday.

The town’s new mayor, incumbent Councilman Gary Werner, was sworn in alongside council newcomers Clair Harmony, who was appointed mayor pro tem, and Eileen Ansari. All three had been endorsed by Diamond Bar Citizens to Protect Country Living.

Miller and Papen said they were shocked and embarrassed by the new majority’s decision, made during a closed-door session, to immediately fire Andrew V. Arczynski and hire Montgomery to replace him.

“How can (Montgomery) represent the city against his own actions? This man has pending lawsuits against the city!” Miller said after the meeting. “This is the most embarrassing dog-and-pony show I’ve ever seen in my life. This is a farce and an insult.”

Miller and Papen then got up and walked out of the chambers.

Ansari and Harmony, who both are represented by Montgomery in litigation, said after Tuesday’s meeting that, among other reasons for their action, they cannot trust Arczynski.

On Wednesday, Werner said he wanted Arczynski out because of his “style and approach.”

“He’s been confrontational with the public and has got himself into the political quagmire,” the mayor said.

Werner said he also was not always confident that Arczynski’s decisions were not politically motivated.

*

Reached for comment Wednesday, the ousted city attorney, who has served in the post since Diamond Bar was incorporated in 1989, said: “There’s a new council majority, and they have their political debts that need to be paid. The two new members have no basis (to fire me). And Mr. Werner knows that nothing I’ve provided (the city) in the way of legal services could not be relied upon.”

Harmony said Montgomery, whom he described as a “fine candidate” for the permanent job, was chosen because each of the new council members knows Montgomery to be a competent and trustworthy attorney.

On Wednesday, Montgomery said he will relinquish several cases that might hint at a conflict of interest. He said he will stop representing Gross in the slander suit against Miller. And, the lawyer added, he will no longer represent Ansari, who is still fighting a 5-year-old case against the developer of her home, and Harmony, who has been sued by a citizen who alleges Harmony assaulted him during the recent campaign.

Also, Montgomery said, he will no longer represent Kenneth Anderson, a Diamond Bar resident who sued the city after the developers of a proposed Hamburger Hamlet restaurant near a residential development were granted a permit to serve alcohol.

Montgomery said other litigation he has filed against the city relating to referendums on the General Plan will be canceled because the council majority has announced it will revise the current plan.

Though he has not been in city government since 1980, when he last served as Bradbury’s city attorney, Montgomery has represented the redevelopment agencies of several San Gabriel Valley cities over the past 20 years. He has offices in the City of Industry, Orange and in Napa in Northern California.

Montgomery said he has not decided whether he will vie for the permanent city attorney’s job, for which a candidate search will soon begin.

Any hopes of bringing a sense of unity to the City Council quickly vanished after Tuesday night’s swearing-in ceremony. A string of critics lambasted Miller and Papen, with speakers launching one allegation of wrongdoing after another against the two during the public-comments portion of the six-hour session.

Werner and Ansari encouraged speakers to limit their comments to constructive ones. But they did little to intervene when supporters of the new council majority cheered and jeered as Miller and Papen were, in Miller’s words, “skewered” at the podium and stung by occasional barbs from council colleagues.

*

Several speakers urged the public--the meetings are broadcast live on a local cable TV station--to sign recall petitions against Miller and Papen.

The new majority supports the recall drive, which is based on allegations that Miller and Papen have, among other things, used their offices for personal gain, and cast votes that critics allege represent conflicts of interest.

“The healing (on the council) cannot begin until the festering agents have been removed,” said Terry Birrell, a member of the recall committee, referring to Miller and Papen.

The two council members vehemently deny the allegations.

“It’s an insult to have their (the new majority’s) little group show up and put us through a three-ring circus,” Miller said after the meeting. “This is no longer the city of Diamond Bar; this is three puppets controlled by Diamond Bar Citizens to Protect Country Living.”