Montgomery pledges peace, seeks to re-establish civil unit

Bill Montgomery is sworn in Nov. 22 as Maricopa County Attorney (Photo by Gary Grado, Arizona Capitol Times).

Bill Montgomery took his oath of office for Maricopa County Attorney Nov. 22, inheriting a two-year vicious power struggle between his office and the Board of Supervisors.

The conflict that began in the administration of Andrew Thomas eased somewhat under acting County Attorney Rick Romley. But Montgomery will test that peace when he sets out to restoring the civil division to his office.

Montgomery said he has the law on his side.

“I think what we have seen recently with court decisions is underscoring the fact that the County Attorney’s Office is the one primarily responsible under our statutes and Constitution for defending the county in lawsuits,” Montgomery said.

The Board of Supervisors created its own civil department in March 2009 apart from the County Attorney’s Office to represent the county in civil cases.

The board stripped the County Attorney of $600,000 and its authority to handle the county’s civil legal matters on the basis that Thomas had a conflict of interest after filing criminal charges against Supervisor Don Stapley.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge upheld the decision to take away the civil division but he also said the county attorney is the appropriate attorney to represent the county unless a direct conflict, such as the one with Thomas, exists.

Thomas resigned in April to run for Attorney General and Romley was appointed to take over until the Nov. 2 special election, which Montgomery won.

The Arizona Court of Appeals decided on Oct. 28 that the Board of Supervisors exceeded its authority by taking away the civil division without determining on a case-by-case whether a conflict of interest existed.

“It is my expectation that is one of the first areas we are going to work together on to make sure that those functions come back and that we do that in a very orderly manner,” Montgomery said.

The Board of Supervisors is not going to simply close down its civil department, which has 14 lawyers, and return the civil matters to the County Attorney.

“Just because Thomas is gone doesn’t mean all of the conflicts are gone, and those are the issues we’re going to have to go through,” said Cari Gerchick, a spokeswoman for the board.

For instance, a Thomas criminal investigation into the construction of a court tower raises all sorts of conflict issues, Gerchick said. There are attorneys from the Thomas era who are still with the office who provided legal advice pertaining to the tower to the Board of Supervisors, before there was a criminal investigation, she said.

Gerchick said having the civil matters handled outside of the County Attorney’s Office has saved the taxpayers money.

Thomas often farmed cases out to expensive private attorneys, Gerchick said.

Montgomery, who will serve the rest of Thomas’ term, said he believes the voters mandated he get along with the Board of Supervisors as a body and individually.

“We have developed what I believe is the beginning of a positive working relationship that will benefit the people of Maricopa County,” Montgomery said.

Their relationship wasn’t so positive during Montgomery’s run against Romley.

Stapley’s secretary secretly recorded Montgomery in March when he was interviewing for the job of interim county attorney. On the recording, Montgomery questioned whether the mental abilities of his ally, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, were declining and he appeared to take a softer stance on illegal immigration than he had taken in public.

Romley later used those statements against him in campaign ads.

Stapley thanked Montgomery publicly at his swearing in ceremony for offering to work cooperatively with the Board of Supervisors.

Montgomery said voters also mandated he enforce immigration laws and work in partnership with Arpaio.

Montgomery took pains during his campaign to ensure voters he was independent of Arpaio, even though he got the sheriff’s endorsement and the sheriff bankrolled hit pieces against Romley.

Romley has said the hit pieces were instrumental in Montgomery’s victory.