HUNTINGTON PARK : City OKs 17 Permits for Fireworks Sales

Immediately after issuing the largest number of fireworks permits in city history, the City Council last week vowed to restrict permits to community service groups starting next year.

The council on Monday approved 17 permits to set up fireworks stands from June 28 through July 5. The council then approved a motion to limit the number of fireworks permits issued in 1994 to 12. The motion must first be reviewed by the city attorney before it is adopted as an ordinance, city Chief Administrative Officer Donald L. Jeffers said.

“Next year we’re going to want more information, receipts. We’re going to want to know where the money (from fireworks sales) went,” Mayor Richard V. Loya said at the meeting.

Two community groups that went before the council to seek renewed applications did not provide records for profits from 1992 sales, and at least three groups did not provide annual community service budget information detailing their donations to community programs, according to documents provided to the council by Jeffers.

“These are the things that made us ask, ‘Are they a viable group, or are they using the name and operating out of their garage?’ ” Councilman Thomas E. Jackson said.

Huntington Park allows only nonprofit community organizations, such as YMCA organizations and Boy Scout troops, to sell fireworks.

Some service groups expressed concern over the move to limit the number of stands.

“I’m concerned about next year,” said Huntington Park Police Lt. Michael Gwaltney, a member of the International Police Assn.’s Region 6, which has about 900 members in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Kern counties. “This is the only way for us to make money.”

The group made $7,338 selling fireworks last year and donated $2,000 in scholarships to area schools, Gwaltney said.

Council members also worry that increasing the fireworks stands would lessen profits for everyone.

“We’ve got too many booths. So an easy way to make sure nobody is getting ripped off is to ask for documentation, because if these groups have tax-exempt status they are supposedly keeping records,” Loya said.