Hawaiian Gardens Council OKs Vote on Fireworks Ban

In a raucous City Council session last week, this city became the second in the Southeast area to put a measure on the November ballot to prohibit fireworks.

The vote was 3 to 2 to place a referendum before the voters that, if adopted, would bar the sale and use of the pyrotechnics.

In Cerritos, the City Council has also put such a measure on the ballot, though the results are not binding. The Cerritos council is just looking for advice, given that much of the housing in the city has shake roofs and two years in a row fireworks have started blazes that destroyed homes.

Sparks are flying in Compton too over fireworks. All five council members recently voted to put a proposed ordinance on the agenda to bar the sale and use after citizens complained of the fire danger and dry conditions caused by the drought.

When it came time a week later for the final vote, however, three council members backed down. They were faced with an angry crowd of opponents representing the many nonprofit groups that sell fireworks the week before the Fourth of July.

The three successfully pressed for a delay of the vote, which shows all the signs of becoming a permanent delay. No new date was scheduled for a vote.

Mayor H.M. (Lennie) Wagner is leading the Hawaiian Gardens forces who want to bar fireworks.

Wagner and Councilwoman Kathleen Navejas held a public shouting match over the issue, with Wagner threatening to adjourn the meeting if the alternating jeers and applause from the audience did not stop.

Navejas said the referendum would cost the city $8,000 to $10,000 that “should be used elsewhere.”

“These people who oppose fireworks,” she said, “let them go out and get signatures and put it on the ballot themselves.

“Don’t make us do the dirty work. . . . You don’t care about the people in this community,” Navejas shouted at Wagner.

The two continued to argue until one member of the audience called on Mayor Pro tem Dominic Ruggeri to “take control of the meeting.”

As in other cities, Hawaiian Gardens allows nonprofit groups to sell state-approved fireworks. This year, about eight groups received such permits, city officials said.

Times community correspondent Harry Angel contributed to this story.