GARDINER — Saying he would not let more than 100 employees down, Security Services Northwest’s president and founder vowed Tuesday to appeal a hearing examiner’s decision last week that shuttered his entire Discovery Bay operation — gun training and all.
“Shutting us down and wiping it off the face of the Peninsula, we don’t think is the option,” Joseph D’Amico said of the company he founded in the late 1980s, which last month had 107 employees and a payroll of $372,444.
“I feel, based on the evidence presented, we have a lawful right to operate our business there,” D’Amico said during a telephone news conference.
“We’ve had a lot of our customers wondering if we’re going to be in business, and they’ve called with concerns.
“We’re going to continue to provide the same level of services to our customers. We’re going to work with this process and continue with the same great services.”
Decision denies appeals
Jefferson County Hearing Examiner Irv Berteig’s decision issued last week denies Security Services’ appeal of two county stop work orders against the company.
The orders were issued after Security Services did not secure the required building and land-use permits.
“We’re now in a tough position,” said D’Amico.
“We were told we can’t hire a new employee and we have to maintain customers.”
Berteig’s decision calls for the closing of all of Security Services administrative and dispatch offices off Old Gardiner Road, along with its shooting ranges.
The shooting ranges have been used for security guard certification, but more recently by homeland security-related military and paramilitary training that produced automatic and semiautomatic gunfire that reverberated across the bay.
The gunfire angered residents around Discovery Bay, and they formed the Discovery Bay Alliance to fight the business, which had been operating since 1988 on parts of the 3,700-acre Gunstone family property along the shores and uplands near Gardiner.
D’Amico, who has been advised by his Seattle attorneys to not speak to the media, broke his silence Tuesday, saying he was not planning to move his operation to Neah Bay.
Instead, he said he will continue his legal battle in Jefferson County Superior Court to at least keep his administrative operation at the same location.