Fireworks Firm Fined in San Fernando Petition Case

A fireworks company pleaded no contest Monday to a charge that two of its employees misrepresented themselves as San Fernando residents when they gathered petition signatures in an effort to lift the city’s ban on fireworks sales, authorities said.

Pyrodyne American of Fullerton was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $2,250 in court costs after entering its plea to the single misdemeanor charge in Los Angeles Municipal Court, said Deputy Dist. Atty. James R. Hickey.

San Fernando City Administrator Donald E. Penman, whose inquiries about the validity of the fireworks petition led to an investigation by the district attorney’s office, said he was satisfied with the court action.

Penman said he was pleased that the fireworks firm had been cited and not its employees. “Obviously, it was two young men basically being used by the fireworks company,” Penman said. “They didn’t understand the full impact of what they were doing.”

The incident began in April when Daniel J. Wilson, 23, and Jess Paul Engler, 24, collected signatures on a petition asking the city of San Fernando to repeal an ordinance prohibiting fireworks sales.

Petition Filed

The petition, bearing 815 signatures, was filed April 5, the day the ordinance was to have gone into effect, but the petition blocked it. Under state law, the city was required to suspend the ordinance until the issue was resolved in an election because the petition against it appeared to have the signatures of at least 10% of the city’s voters.

The petition was later declared invalid--and the ordinance put into effect--when it was discovered that Wilson and Engler were not San Fernando residents. Under state law, petition sponsors and those gathering signatures to block a city ordinance must be residents and registered voters of that city.

The two Pyrodyne employees listed their residence as 618 Lazard St., the home of San Fernando Planning Commissioner Helen Arriola and her husband, Ralph, executive director of the Latin American Civic Assn.

Ralph Arriola’s organization was one of several civic groups that sold fireworks just before the Fourth of July each year to raise funds.

During the investigation, Arriola sent the city government a written statement denying that the petition-gatherers had ever lived at or visited his house, Penman said. The Arriolas could not be reached for comment Monday.

Thomas E. Elenbaas, an attorney representing Pyrodyne, maintained that Wilson and Engler had been informed by a third party that they could use the Arriola address. However, Elenbaas said he did not know the identity of that person.