D.A. Looking Into Payments to Councilman : Moorpark: Scott Montgomery denies taking any loan from an official of G.I. Industries and says he is not aware of any inquiry.

County prosecutors are investigating whether a $3,500 loan was paid to Moorpark City Councilman Scott Montgomery in 1993 by an official from the east county’s largest trash hauler, The Times has learned.

Investigators from the district attorney’s political corruption unit also have obtained documents relating to a $12,000 payment made to Montgomery for computer services the previous year by a company that had been a subsidiary of the trash hauling firm--G.I. Industries.

Montgomery--who says he has no knowledge of any investigation relating to him--denied Thursday that he has taken any loan or payment that he failed to report or engaged in any kind of improper business relationship.

There is no information concerning either a $3,500 loan or a $12,000 payment for computer services in Montgomery’s election reporting documents. Failure to report such income on campaign statements can be a violation of election law, said Jeanette Turvill, a spokeswoman for the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.

In an interview Thursday and in two earlier interviews in the past week, Montgomery has denied taking any $3,500 loan from the trash company official, Manuel Asadurian Sr., who was chairman of the board of G.I. Industries until 1993 and remains on its board of directors.

He said the $3,500 was a payment for a computer and software he sold to G.I. Sweeping, a company owned by Asadurian that operates street-cleaning equipment for use in parking lots and airports.

Montgomery, who was voting on city trash contracts with G.I. Industries during the period that is the focus of the investigation, said there was nothing wrong in that transaction because G.I. Sweeping is not a trash collection company.

“There is no documentation of any type of loan because I didn’t take any type of loan,” he said.

Montgomery added that he had receipts proving that the money was a payment for a computer--not a loan.

He also defended his decision not to report either the $3,500 payment or the earlier $12,000 payment on campaign statements of financial interest, because he said the companies that paid him--G.I. Sweeping and G.I. Equipment Leasing-- were not in any way related to G.I. Industries.

Asadurian, who was the chief executive officer for G.I. Industries until 1993, could not be reached for comment on any relations he has had with Montgomery. He remains one of the principal stockholders of G.I. Industries and also works as a paid consultant to the firm.

While denying any loans or dealings with Asadurian’s trash company, Montgomery said Thursday that the $12,000 payment made to him for computer equipment came from another company linked to the Asadurian family. That company, G.I. Equipment Leasing, was a wholly owned subsidiary of G.I. Industries until 1992.

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The company, which rents and leases trucks and other heavy equipment, is run by Asadurian’s son, Manuel Asadurian Jr., who is still on the board of directors for G.I. Industries.

County prosecutors would not comment, but The Times learned last week that the public corruption unit of the district attorney’s office has been interviewing trash company officials and requesting Moorpark campaign records as part of an investigation that began six months ago.

Among the records prosecutors have requested are:

* Campaign records of all five members of the Moorpark City Council, including contributions under $100, during the last two city elections.

* Lists of all contributions, including those under $100, to Scott Montgomery’s unsuccessful campaign last year to win a seat on the Board of Supervisors.

* Minutes from Moorpark City Council meetings dating back to 1992 and related to local waste-hauling contracts and other countywide trash issues.

* All the minutes of the Ventura county Waste Commission--which was chaired by Montgomery until earlier this month--during that same period.

While Montgomery denied any improper business dealings with Asadurian, he did say the trash company official was a strong political supporter. It was at Asadurian’s sprawling Moorpark ranch in the fall of 1994 that Montgomery had a $250-per-plate fund-raiser for his supervisorial race.

Although Montgomery denies taking a personal loan from any of the Asadurians, Kip Mali, an attorney overseeing G.I.’s reorganization in federal bankruptcy court, gave a different account to The Times in an interview Thursday.

Mali said that the personal $3,500 loan was made to Montgomery by Manuel Asadurian Sr. Mali added that investigators have obtained copies of a canceled check for $3,500 and two letters to Montgomery asking for repayment of the loan.

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In addition to the document relating to the loan, Mali said that the investigators also have obtained invoices and canceled checks for the $12,000 payment for the computer services Montgomery performed for G.I. Equipment Leasing.

Mali said the bankruptcy trustees learned about the loan through an independent investigation into the matter almost a year ago.

“There was a story about G.I. or Conejo (a wholly owned subsidiary of G.I.) making a $3,500 contribution to Scott Montgomery, which would have been wrong,” Mali said.

“We later determined that there had been a $3,500 loan and it had not come from the company, but was a personal loan given to Montgomery by Manny Asadurian Sr.,” Mali said.

Within a year of that payment Montgomery voted on city issues affecting G.I. Industries. One vote was to extend G.I.’s exclusive waste-hauling contract with the city. Another was to exclude outside companies from bidding on the trash contracts, city records show.

The contracts for residential and commercial waste hauling in Moorpark are worth as much as $5 million over five years, one city source estimated.

Repeating that he has no knowledge of any investigation, Montgomery stressed Thursday that the sums he described as payments for computer services were not reported on election documents because he believed the two other G.I. companies were distinct from G.I. Industries and did not do business in Moorpark.

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“Those companies are wholly independent from G.I. Industries,” he said. “When someone buys a product, they don’t always know the corporate officers. My understanding is that there was no relationship between the companies. And I still don’t know for a fact that there is one. From what I know, there is no connection.”

Montgomery said that the fact that the companies are controlled by the same family does not mean that they have a relationship to each other. He added that his attorney, Dan Schmidt, has carefully researched the subject and reached the same conclusion. Schmidt could not be reached for comment.

“It is obvious that at the time of the transactions there was no relationship between these companies and any company that does business in Moorpark,” Montgomery said. “And it would be totally inaccurate and factually untrue to report otherwise.”

Montgomery said he asked at the time of his business dealings if the two companies had any relationship with G.I. Industries when he did business with them and was told that there was no connection between the companies.

“And what you’re telling me confirms that,” he said. “If I would have been aware of any relationship, I would have disclosed this individually, but I was assured to the contrary.”

During the period in which he received the payments now under official scrutiny, Montgomery also served as both chairman and vice chairman of the Ventura County Waste Commission.

Over the years, Montgomery has gained a reputation as an expert in local trash issues, and until April of this year served on a City Council committee negotiating with G.I. Industries on a new city contract.

After the investigators requested documents related to local trash contracts and files concerning donations to Montgomery’s campaign, Montgomery stepped down from the city committee negotiating the new contracts.

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He also withdrew his name from consideration for reelection as chairman to the Waste Commission.

He said his new job as a marketing sales manager for a computer printer supply company in Chatsworth had forced him to cut back the time he spends on county and city business.

Until this spring, Montgomery delivered newspapers for the Ventura County Star and operated Eagle Systems, a computer and financial consulting service out of his home.

Montgomery raised about $47,000 in the supervisors race, which was won by former Simi Valley City Councilwoman Judy Mikels.

He still owes in excess of $10,000 for campaign expenses, he said.

G.I. Industries is a holding company for several east county companies and is the sole owner of Conejo Enterprises, which controls exclusive waste-hauling contracts in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark.

With nearly 50,000 customers in the east county, the company had revenues last year of $16 million.

Manuel Asadurian Sr. and his brother, Sam, started the trash company with one truck in the late 1940s in Santa Monica. They soon moved and took over routes in the San Fernando Valley in the 1950s and early in the 1960s. In 1969 they moved to Moorpark.

The pair got a foothold in Ventura County by aggressively buying small rubbish companies.

In 1988, the Asadurians took the previously family-run company public with hopes of diversifying and expanding their business.

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By 1992, however, the corporation, deeply in debt, was faltering and G.I. officials filed for bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy trustees are still reviewing plans for reorganization, and several of the company’s subsidiaries have already been sold off.

Most of the corporation’s assets are the exclusive waste hauling contracts G.I. holds with the cities of Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark.

G.I. Chief Executive Officer Michael Smith said he was unaware of any investigation into payments or loans made to Montgomery by company officials.