MOORPARK : Montgomery Owes $2,545, DMV Says

The state Department of Motor Vehicles is taking steps to collect $2,545 in vehicle registration fees and penalties from Ventura County supervisorial candidate Scott Montgomery, who has failed to pay the debt for nearly two years, officials said Friday.

“Our records show that it has not been paid,” said Evan Nossoff, a department spokesman. He said Montgomery owed the fees for driving a vehicle with expired license plates.

But Montgomery said he is not responsible for the debt and plans to appeal the case. He added that the 1989 Ford Bronco in question is properly registered to his wife, Patricia.

“My wife acquired it from my mother-in-law (a Michigan resident), so if there are any fees, they are attributable to her,” Montgomery said. “We don’t feel responsible for someone else’s debt.”

But Nossoff said both Montgomery and his wife are responsible.

“They have made representation to us that they do not owe the money,” he said. “We believe they owe it.”

Montgomery said he could not recall ever being notified by the DMV or a private collection agency about outstanding fees or fines. “This was unknown to us,” he said.

But Nossoff said his office mailed Montgomery two notices, including one dated Sept. 6, about the debt.

Nossoff noted that $613 had been paid for the vehicle’s current registration, but that does not erase include past fines and fees. If the money is not collected, Nossoff said the Bronco would probably be seized and sold to pay off the debt.

In early 1993, DMV officials said they began investigating Montgomery after it was established that he had been driving the Bronco with expired Michigan license plates. Investigators were told by neighbors that Montgomery had been driving the truck for more than a year, occasionally to City Council meetings.

Montgomery said the vehicle was owned by his mother-in-law at the time, and so he was not responsible for any registration fees that she may have owed.

Montgomery, a Moorpark city councilman, is running for a supervisorial seat representing Simi Valley and Moorpark.