Compton Council Considers Ban on Fireworks Sale, Use

The City Council unanimously agreed to consider a proposed ordinance next week that would bar the sale and use of Fourth of July fireworks--a proposal that is bound to draw fire from church groups and other nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofit groups that depend on the once-a-year fireworks sales to pay for activities will have 12 months in which to devise new fund-raising plans, Councilwoman Jane Robbins said after the council meeting Tuesday.

She also said the city will ask the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to bar the sale of the holiday novelties in unincorporated areas that lie within and around Compton’s borders.

“We’re just saying we’re not going to sell them and don’t want them used in the city,” Robbins said.

Councilman Maxcy D. Filer, who introduced the proposed ordinance, said after the meeting, “There’s no such thing as safe and sane fireworks. No such thing.”

“Safe and sane” is an industry label for fireworks approved by the state for sale and detonation in areas where they are not prohibited by individual cities. At least one building and several trees, Filer said, were set on fire this year in Compton by fireworks that had been sold under the “safe and sane” billing.

And the noise drives animals crazy, he said.

“We have one incident after another every year regarding the maladies of fireworks,” Councilwoman Patricia A. Moore said. “We can no longer afford the luxury. We have too many other problems that our police and fire departments have to respond to.”

The drought, Moore said, increases the dangers presented by fireworks, and the city needs to conserve water for emergencies.

Last year, Moore tried unsuccessfully to persuade the council to impose a ban. She said she believes that her previous effort failed because it came too close to the sales time. The council did not want to pull the financial rug out from under the varied community groups depending on the money.

This year, 31 local nonprofit groups received permits from the city to sell fireworks during the week leading up to the holiday. Among the groups were local high school booster clubs, the Pop Warner Football League, the Boy Scouts and several church organizations.

Judging from the heated reaction last year when Moore tried to get a ban adopted, next week’s meeting promises to be crowded. As of this week, few nonprofit groups had been alerted to the proposed ordinance.

However, sales executives from two fireworks distribution companies attended the meeting, along with their public relations specialists. They are expected to fill the council chambers next week with representatives of the nonprofit groups they supply.

“This will be a major devastation to the community if this goes through,” said Joyce L. Flannery, executive vice president of the Flannery Group, the San Diego public relations firm.

She did not speak at the meeting but said afterward that thousands of dollars flow to community groups every year via the sale of fireworks.

The Rev. Robert Allen, pastor of Allen Chapel Baptist Church on North Wilmington Avenue, said his congregation’s charitable organization, the Progressive Club of Compton, has supported youth programs, disaster relief and senior activities with money from fireworks sales for the last 15 years.

“It’s going to be a loss to the city, as well as (to) the seniors and the youth,” he said, adding that a ban on fireworks will compound the city’s budget problems.

“The citizens will go to other cities and purchase them and bring them back here, and Compton will lose the revenues,” Allen said. The city receives one cent of the 6.5% state sales tax.

Filer, however, takes issue with those economic arguments. Most of the profits from fireworks sales go to the fireworks suppliers, not to youth or other nonprofit groups, he said after the meeting.

Fireworks sales in the city total about $250,000 to $280,000 each year, Filer said, with the groups selling the fireworks receiving about $50,000 of that total.

Allen confirmed that the profit for charitable groups is not large, given the overall sales figures. Last year his church group received about $4,200 from sales of about $14,000, he said.

And out of that, Allen said, the group had to pay the city $125 in permit fees, buy insurance, pay a security guard and pay rent for the land on which it set up its sales stand.

If the Compton council goes through with a ban, it will be joining four other Southeast cities that also bar the sale and use of fireworks--Cudahy, Whittier, Long Beach and La Habra Heights.

Cerritos voters will get a chance in November to tell their City Council whether they want a ban. The council has placed a nonbinding measure on the ballot, asking the voters for direction on the issue.

A home was destroyed in Cerritos this year when fireworks landed on its shingle roof and ignited a blaze.

NEXT STEP

An ordinance that would bar the sale and use of fireworks will be on the agenda when the Compton City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall. Three votes are needed to pass the ordinance.