PORT ORCHARD — An attorney representing Gardiner-based Security Services Northwest pleaded Friday in Kitsap County Superior Court for a stay of the Jefferson County Hearing Examiner Irv Berteig’s decision that essentially shuts the business down, calling the interpretation of evidence “beyond belief.”
“Jefferson County is trying to shut down my client’s business,” Seattle attorney Glenn Amster said before Judge Jay Roof in an otherwise quiet court hearing attended by Security Services President Joe D’Amico and his family, county Department of Community Development officials and Discovery Bay Alliance representatives.
Amster assailed Berteig’s Jan. 20 decision, saying, “It is as sloppy a job of decision-making that I have ever seen.”
Amster argued that Berteig ignored testimony from a Gunstone family representative and four law enforcement officers that establishes Security Services’ operations and training activities as starting in the late 1980s, proving it is a legal nonconforming land use.
Roof said he would take Amster’s request for a stay of Berteig’s order under review and make a decision by mid-week.
‘Clearly inappropriate’
County-contracted Seattle attorney Mark Johnsen called Security Services’ motion for a stay “clearly inappropriate.”
“The hearing examiner decision should remain in place during the appeal process,” Johnsen said.
At the heart of the legal battle is Security Services’ argument that it is a nonconforming land use that D’Amico established in 1988 on about 20 acres of the 3,700-acre Gunstone family timber and shellfish property.
The land runs along Discovery Bay’s western shores and into the Olympic foothills.
