Lombardo declines sit-down over firearm safety

A former member of the state board that regulates armed security guards and private investigators says he resigned from his position over what he calls a lack of regulatory oversight by the agency, the Private Investigators Licensing Board. 

Rick Brown, a Northern Nevada polygrapher and former law enforcement official who was appointed to the board in 2020, resigned in June after learning the PILB’s executive director Vincent Saladino failed to notify the board of “irresponsible and negligent” behavior by a firearms instructor who trained armed guards. 

Gov. Joe Lombardo, who previously served as Clark County sheriff and stakes his political bona fides on his reputation as a law and order candidate, is refusing to meet with certified firearms instructors who provided evidence of alleged violations by board licensees and staff, and are asking for reforms. The PILB’s five members are appointed by the governor.

Andrew Cowie, president of the Nevada Association of Certified Firearms Instructors, says he’s been asking to meet with Lombardo since March. Since then, Cowie told Lombardo in an email provided to the Current, that the board has “stopped myself and others from bringing forward legitimate public safety matters.”

Lombardo’s office responded with the formal equivalent of ‘don’t call us. We’ll call you.’ 

“Considering the extensive nature of what you’ve provided, and the status of this Office’s current projects and responsibilities, we will review and consider additional follow-up, as appropriate,” Lombardo’s deputy general counsel Dylan Tedford responded this month, adding later that “at least in the short term” the governor would not meet personally with the instructors.

Nevada security guards illegally carrying rifles and shotguns, lawmakers learn 

Brown, the board member who resigned, says instructors reported watching Stephanie Costello of Archangel Training Solutions “on a weekly basis walk out of the range when instruction is going on” and “allowing non-certified instructors to instruct,” which is against the rules. Additionally, according to Brown, Costello’s schedule indicated she taught concealed weapons and firearms classes for armed guards at the same time.

“You can’t do both at the same time,” said Brown. 

Costello did not respond to the Current’s request for comment.

Saladino, the PILB executive director, moonlights as an instructor at the Clark County Shooting Complex, and “was allowing this to go on,” says Brown. 

Saladino did not respond to requests for comment.

Brown noted that last year, without the board’s knowledge, Saladino initiated an investigation of Costello and meted out disciplinary action amounting to a “slap on the wrist.” 

According to state law, the board, not the executive director, determines whether to take disciplinary action. 

“When I was sent videos of what happened, I was shocked that a small slap on the wrist was the only thing that was done,” Brown says, adding he sent the videos to PILB Chairwoman Tammy Nixon, Chief Deputy Attorney General Rosalie Bordelove, and Deputy Attorney General Stephanie Itkin-Goodman, who is assigned to the PILB. Itkin-Goodman is also running for Clark County Public Administrator. 

“I told them that I wanted an agenda item added to the upcoming meeting, where we could discuss suspending this firearms instructor and possibly revoking her certification,” Brown says. “There was hemming and hawing and ‘you know, we want to make sure that we’re doing this right and it’s legal,’ and stuff like that,” he says. 

“We’ve been made aware the instructor is unsafe and negligent, and we didn’t take any action,” Brown says he told Nixon, Itkin-Goodman, and Bordelove. “If something Costello does or does not do results in injury or death, we are in that liability chain. I said if no action is taken, I’m going to resign to take myself out of that chain.” 

Spokesman John Sadler said the AG’s “job in regard to the PILB is to provide legal advice. Our client — the PILB in this case — makes decisions within the scope of its statutory mandate. We are neither the policy making nor the disciplinary body. We cannot comment on legal communications with our clients.”

In July, the PILB issued a cease and desist letter to Costello pending further action. This month, the board fined Costello $5,000 and suspended her certification as a firearms instructor for her failure to adhere to regulations during classes she instructed. Her suspension was slated to end Sept. 18. 

The incident is not the only alleged regulatory lapse on the part of the PILB, which allows security guards to carry shotguns and automatic rifles — a practice not sanctioned by the law, legislative authorities observed in June.

“That blew me away,” Brown told the Current of Saladino’s assertion that carrying the weapons is standard practice. “No one on the board, as far as I know, had any knowledge of that. Come to find out, watching the executive director testify, that it’s been going on for years.”

Cowie of the firearms instructors’ association wants the state to not only enforce the current law that does not permit security guards to carry rifles and shotguns, but to consider mandating more training for armed guards.

“Lives have already been lost and others seriously endangered in recent incidents involving security officers,” Cowie wrote to Lombardo, adding these incidents never reached the board “for consideration of reforms that could help prevent recurrence.”

During the pandemic, a security guard shot and killed a patron at a Las Vegas 7-Eleven store. 

Last year, a security guard who wasn’t permitted to be armed shot a tourist on the Strip. 

In April, a security guard at Atomic Golf shot a kitchen worker in the chest, and then barricaded inside an office as police responded. 

Cowie contends the incidents “are only a fraction” of the concerns that have failed to get the board’s attention. He asserts Saladino, the executive director, and Nixon, the chairwoman, are using administrative processes “as a barrier to reform.” The agency’s inactions, he told Lombardo, amount to ““a public-safety failure with the potential to cost lives.”