ELECTIONS / 4th SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT : Montgomery Is Campaigning as an Advocate for the East County : Politics: Moorpark councilman says more decisions affecting his area are being made by county board.

When he is out campaigning, Ventura County supervisor candidate Scott Montgomery loves to talk trash.

The Moorpark city councilman said one of the chief concerns east county residents have for the future is that the Simi Valley Landfill does not become the county’s sole dump.

This is why, Montgomery said, he strongly backs a plan by a group of San Diego investors to develop a new west county landfill at Weldon Canyon near Ojai. The Bailard Landfill in Oxnard is scheduled to close in 1997.

Taconic Resources of Del Mar will start collecting signatures this weekend to qualify for a November ballot initiative that would let voters decide whether a landfill should be developed at Weldon Canyon, which Ojai residents and environmental groups have so far successfully opposed.

Montgomery, who chairs the Ventura County Waste Commission, is so convinced that Weldon Canyon is the best site for a new landfill that he has even offered Taconic help in collecting signatures for its proposed ballot initiative.

“I’m already taking bullets from the people in Ojai about this and will continue to do so,” he said. “But you’ve got to take a stand.”

Montgomery, 40, said he decided to enter the supervisor’s race because more and more decisions affecting east county cities are being made at the county level, such as the Weldon Canyon issue. The Board of Supervisors has debated the issue of a new dump at the Ojai site for the last four years without resolution.

“I find this to be a very disturbing trend,” said Montgomery, who is seeking the seat being vacated by Supervisor Vicky Howard. Her 4th District represents Simi Valley, Moorpark, Somis and the Santa Rosa Valley.

Montgomery said another example of this trend came in March when the supervisors voted on how money from Proposition 172--a half-cent sales tax initiative approved by state voters in November--would be split among public safety agencies. The board agreed to divide the money among law enforcement groups, including the Sheriff’s Department, which serves Moorpark.

But Montgomery argued before the Board of Supervisors that the county Fire Department should have also received a piece of the pie in light of the wildfires that swept through the region in the fall.

“If it hadn’t been for the performance of the firefighters, that measure would have failed,” said Montgomery, who added that he would push to see that firefighters get a share of the sales tax money in the future.

While he supports increasing county health services, Montgomery said some of the money should be spent in the east county rather than on such projects as the proposed $30-million expansion of Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura.

“Where is the priority for service of east county residents?” he said. “We have virtually no facilities.”

Although both Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks each have county health clinics, Montgomery said they are “tokenism compared to what the west county has with the hospital.”

Montgomery expressed strong reservations about a proposal to establish a commercial airport at Point Mugu. Concerned about continuing defense cuts, the Navy has offered to share its runway with the county as a way to reduce operating costs. Both of Montgomery’s opponents support the idea.

But Montgomery said be believes that a commercial airport would invite an “explosion of growth” that would increase crime and decrease property values in the surrounding area.

“I think we’re doing an awful lot of talking about something that will never happen,” he said.

For all his enthusiasm and drive, Montgomery admits that his two opponents have one big advantage in the June 7 election: He lives in Moorpark. They live in Simi Valley.

A city of 26,000, Moorpark is one-fourth the size of Simi Valley, where Montgomery’s two rivals serve on the City Council. Being from a larger city, both Barbara Williamson and Judy Mikels start out with more name recognition and more sources from which to raise money.

“To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a supervisor elected from Moorpark,” Montgomery said. “So I would have to rate myself an underdog.”

But Montgomery said one thing he has more of than either Williamson or Mikels is government experience. He has served on the Moorpark City Council since 1988. By comparison, Mikels has held public office for three years, and Williamson one.

In addition to his council experience, Montgomery serves on the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s advisory committee, the Ventura County Animal Regulation Commission and the Waste Commission.

“If you’re going to change government, you first have to know how it works,” he said. “And I can tell you in a year and a half or three years, you’re not going to understand that.”

But Mikels, who also sits on a number of county committees, played down Montgomery’s City Council experience.

“Moorpark is a very small town,” she said. “I don’t think they have dealt with the same types of issues and budgets that Simi Valley has dealt with.”

Mikels and Williamson said Montgomery is counting heavily on support from the local chapter of the Christian Coalition--a national conservative organization that seeks to elect candidates to advance an anti-abortion agenda and other socially conservative causes--to help boost his campaign.

“Scott has a certain base in the Christian Coalition, and I think he thinks he’s going to carry Simi Valley and Moorpark because of it,” she said. “But I’m not sure if it’s enough of a base.”

Although he is not a member of the coalition, Montgomery said it’s mostly because he hasn’t had time to join. “I certainly don’t have much philosophical difference with a number of their beliefs,” he said.

A staunch pro-life advocate, Montgomery is candid about his views on abortion but is less clear on what role county government should play in such issues.

In one recent interview, he said that, if elected, he would use his position as a supervisor to see that county taxpayer dollars are not used to fund “optional” abortions.

“The Board of Supervisors will not decide the legality of abortion, but they will decide whether the county spends taxpayer funds on optional abortions,” he said. “I will be a vote to restrict taxpayer funding of abortions only to those cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is threatened.”

Montgomery said he could not separate his personal moral beliefs from his duties as a public official.

“I will bring my own beliefs and principles as an integral part of every decision I make,” he said. “But I think it’s important to realize so does everyone else.”

In a separate interview a few days later, however, Montgomery was asked if he would be willing as a county supervisor to challenge the state and perhaps even the federal government on how taxpayer dollars are used in local abortion cases.

“It’s not an issue,” he said. “It’s an issue to the extent that voters want to know the character, beliefs and values of candidates.”

Friends and supporters describe Montgomery as amiable, objective and hard-working.

“He has a very balanced view and approach in solving problems,” said Francis Okyere, former president of the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce. “He’s pragmatic. That’s one of the qualities I’ve always admired about him.”

But others who have worked closely with him over the years offer a different view of Montgomery, whom they describe as a brash opportunist, someone more concerned about his political career than his constituents.

“He’s a real politician, in the worse sense of that word,” said Clint Harper, a Moorpark school board member and former councilman. “He has the ego the size of Mt. Everest.”

The fact that almost no local official or business organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce have endorsed Montgomery “should tell you something,” Harper said. “These are the people who know him best.”

John Wozniak, the only member of the Moorpark council to support his colleague in the supervisor race, said Montgomery is not brash but “gutsy . . . because he will say things other politicians won’t.”

Montgomery acknowledges that his sturdy self-confidence may have rubbed people the wrong way in the past, “but I’ve learned.”

“The tendencies I had when I was first elected was to be a bit more arrogant,” he said. “But I’m not the same person I was five or six years ago. I can tell you that an arrogant person does not take on a second job as I have done in order to have the time and to forgo the income I have just to serve their local community.”

A former financial consultant, Montgomery, who works out of his house, said he designs and sells his own microcomputer software. He also delivers newspapers for the Ventura Star-Free Press in the morning to help make ends meet.

“The hours are certainly conducive,” he said of his second job. “This way, I can dedicate more time to the city.”

For all his government experience, Montgomery is not always as well-informed on the issues as he lets on, his opponents say.

At a recent candidates forum in Simi Valley, Montgomery talked about forming county and city partnerships as a way to help reduce government expenditures and increase efficiency.

One way to do this, he proposed, would be for the county to contract with Simi Valley and Moorpark to provide building and safety services to people living in unincorporated areas outside those cities. This way, he said, residents would not have to drive 40 miles to the county’s Government Center in Ventura to pull building permits.

When it was her turn to speak, Mikels informed Montgomery that those services are already provided at the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley.

At another candidates forum a few days later, Montgomery said he still believes that county and city partnerships can be formed in other areas to help reduce the cost of some services.

Profile of Scott MontgomeryScott Montgomery is one of three candidates competing for the seat being vacated by retiring County Supervisor Vicky Howard. Her 4th District seat includes Simi Valley, Moorpark, Somis and the Santa Rosa Valley.

Born: Aug. 8, 1953

Occupation: Incumbent Moorpark city councilman, self-employed designer and marketer of computer software, newspaper deliverer

Education: Bachelor’s degree in management from Pepperdine University, attended the United States Military Academy at West Point for two years.

Background: Councilman since 1988; planning commissioner from 1986-88; 16 years experience as municipal finance consultant, eight with his own business and eight as vice president and director of municipal programs with Great Western Bank; chairman of the Ventura County Waste Commission.

Quote: “If you’re going to change government, you first have to know how it works. I know how it works.”