Moorpark Councilman Testifies to Grand Jury : Inquiry: Scott Montgomery and owner of trash hauler G. I. Industries undergo questioning from prosecutors on business dealings.

Moorpark City Councilman Scott Montgomery and a Ventura County trash executive testified Monday before the Ventura County grand jury, which is investigating business dealings between the two as part of a probe that started nearly 10 months ago.

The grand jury spent most of the day listening to prosecutors question Montgomery and Manuel Asadurian Sr., owner of G. I. Industries, which hauls trash for Moorpark.

Montgomery emerged early Monday evening from the grand jury chambers at the Ventura County Courthouse and is expected to return for more questioning Thursday morning.

“I’ve answered so many questions,” Montgomery said, slightly hoarse after testifying for more than three hours. “Please, I don’t want to answer any more questions today.”

Asadurian also declined to comment after testifying for several hours during the morning, saying only that officials in the grand jury chambers told him not to discuss the case publicly.

But Daniel J. Schmidt, Montgomery’s attorney, said prosecutors quizzed the councilman about a $3,500 payment that Montgomery said he accepted from Asadurian to install a computer at Asadurian’s Simi Valley-based G. I. Sweeping Inc.

Asadurian has said in the past that the sum was a short-term loan to Montgomery that the councilman has not repaid.

But Montgomery has said that Asadurian wrote the $3,500 check to Montgomery’s Eagle Systems computer and financial consulting firm for installation of computer equipment.

And, Schmidt said, the equipment was installed at G. I. Sweeping Inc.--a company owned by Asadurian that uses heavy equipment to clean shopping center parking lots and remove graffiti.

G. I. Sweeping, Schmidt said, is a separate corporate entity from G. I. Industries, which holds contracts to haul Moorpark’s trash.

“It’s all boiling down to this issue: whether the $3,500 check was a loan or an advance payment for a computer system,” Schmidt said Monday. “It was an advance payment [and] the computer went to G. I. Sweeping.

“The entity that Scott Montgomery dealt with had no business pending with the city [of Moorpark], had no contracts with the city, had no prospects of business with the city,” Schmidt said. “And it was represented to Scott that there were no financial ties between the entities. He wanted to make sure he would not be getting into a problem here.”

State law requires council members to disclose any financial interest with a firm doing business before the council. It also requires candidates seeking office to disclose a financial interest statement.

Montgomery never reported the transaction on campaign financial disclosure documents, despite running for reelection in 1992 and running an unsuccessful campaign in 1994 for a seat on the County Board of Supervisors, records show.

During the three-year period in which he received the money, City Council minutes show that Montgomery voted on city trash contract changes or rate increases for G. I. Industries. At the same time, he served as chairman and vice chairman of the Ventura County Waste Commission.

Schmidt said that the amount of money in the deal falls well below the $10,000 threshold set by the California Fair Political Practices Commission--above which public officials must report their personal income.

“We’re talking about $3,500 worth of computers, on which Scott made a $190 profit,” Schmidt said. “It falls below the threshold of the reporting requirement--even if it had been a company that had dealt with the city.”

What’s more, Schmidt said, “There is no relationship between the transaction in question and any [Moorpark City Council] action that occurred prior to or subsequent to that transaction.”

Investigators with the Ventura County district attorney’s office have been questioning Montgomery, as well as Asadurian and other officials of G. I. Industries, about their dealings with the councilman for the past several months.

With exclusive contracts in Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, G. I. Industries picks up trash for about 40,000 Ventura County residents, grossing between $16 million and $19 million a year.