PORT TOWNSEND — Joe D’Amico, who has long fought Jefferson County over land-use issues surrounding his desire to expand his Gardiner-based Security Services Northwest’s operation for police and military weapons and tactical training, will have to pay the county nearly $18,000 more in legal fees.
“You may recall that the Court of Appeals in its most recent SSNW decision awarded the county its reasonable attorney’s fees and costs . . . because the county prevailed both at the trial court level and now has prevailed at the Court of Appeals,” county Chief Deputy Civil Prosecuting Attorney David Alvarez announced in a statement last week.
D’Amico has already written the county a $50,000 check for the first wave of legal fees and expenses the county incurred in his original lawsuit over county’s shutting down of his original operation that brought in police and military personnel for weapons training at his “Fort Discovery” gun practice ranges in 2005.
Originally, his lawyers argued D’Amico’s business was a legal “non-conforming” use dating back before the county’s zoning laws in 1992.
Compiled fees, costs
The county’s contracted private land-use attorney in the case, Mark Johnsen of Seattle, compiled his fees and costs and submitted them to the Court of Appeals. They totaled $17,987.71.
D’Amico, president of Security Service Northwest recently lost another round in state Appeals Court, this time for monetary damages against the county.
The appeals court rejected his legal claim, agreeing with the county that the appeal was “devoid of merit” and “frivolous.”
D’Amico wasted no time in letting the county commissioners know last Monday after the court decision that he would fight on and may ask the state Supreme Court to review the case.
“We are seriously reviewing appealing to the Washington Supreme Court,” D’Amico said Saturday.
D’Amico said that neither he nor his attorney had seen the billing from Johnsen or Alvarez yet.
He said they probably would not consider contesting it until after the state Supreme Court reviews and determines if it will hear his case.
He said he and his attorney still feel the Court of Appeals’ most recent decision was in error.
D’Amico recently said his nearly 5-year-old fight has cost him about $800,000 in legal costs and fees.
The county already has been successful in winning back from D’Amico $50,000 in the cost of its defense through the first of two Appeals Court cases.
The latest billing brings his county legal fees to nearly $68,000.
Began June 2005
D’Amico’s legal challenges stretch back to June 2005 when the county Building Department issued a stop-work order against him, red-tagging three structures without county permits that D’Amico built to expand his business enterprise on the 24-acre Fort Discovery site.
Security Services Northwest is headquartered on Discover Bay on west-shore property owned by the Gunstone family.
The county’s original action coincided with complaints from Discovery Bay-area residents, who said they could hear loud, repeating gunfire and other explosions resounding across the placid bay.
Many of them testified before the county hearing examiner that the gunfire was disturbing, while others backed D’Amico’s efforts to train the military during the height of fervor surrounding the Iraq war.
The Court of Appeals in its most recent order “collaterally stopped” D’Amico from seeking further damages against the county.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
