HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - PUBLIC COMMENTS ON SAFE & SANE FIREWORKSMarch 01, 2016
City Council Meeting
Correspondence
PUBLIC COMMENTS- Safe & Sane Fireworks
Date of Sender/Representative
AYSO Assistant Area
Wgendas12016 AgendacTehibits 2016 - Current McOng12016-03-07_Exhibits_Correspondence _PC.dmx
To: City of Santa Ana City Council
Subject: Banning of Safe & Sane Fireworks
Good evening Mayor, City Council, City Staff and the public watching from home. My name is Rick
Niedermayer and I have lived in the city of Santa Ana for over 42 years. Growing up in our city as a child I
always look forward to the 411 of July, as a time to be with family and enjoy the freedoms that were
fought for over 200 years ago. As has been reported in the Santa Ana Register the public safety
commission held a special meeting on February 22n6 to address whether the city should continue to
allow non -profits in our city the opportunity to sell Safe and Sane fireworks in Santa Ana. I as one of
those non -profits found out about this meeting earlier on the same day of the meeting.
If believe that if a special meeting was necessary, then all of the non -profits that are effected should
have been notified of this meeting. The city has a record of the every non -profits that ran a stand in the
past, as they city requires a special license for each! I hear that each of you want to be transparent in
your decisions that affect our community. This meeting was not transparent, as only three non -profits
were in attendance, and only because there schedules were open they were available to attend.
Drive -byes, murders, and assaults are all at an all-time high in Santa Ana, and the Public Safety
committee is calling a special meeting to talk about banning safe & sane fireworks. I truly believe that
the priorities of our public safety committee are a little not correct!
As mentioned in the meeting the city saw an extremely large amount of illegal fireworks, on the 1st thru
the 4th of July. In this special meeting the police department noted that in their presentation that there
are 9 cities that allowed firework, in reality there were 10. There were other facts presented that were
not completely true. One of the police representatives made a statement that they do not have the
personnel to handle the call of illegal firework, and when they did go to a call as soon as they got out of
the car the people shooting off the illegal firework took off running, and they were not able to catch
them! I wanted to ask what they do when they arrive at a location and illegal drug are being distributed
or used, and the suspects take off running, I do not believe that the officers say that they are too fast
and we could not catch! In the same example the police representative ask how would the officer know
the safe n sane from the illegal fireworks, once again the public could not respond as public comment
had already happened. This is an easy answer the state fire marshal stamp is on all safe & sane
fireworks.
Our city fine or citation for illegal fireworks is only $100. How many of those were issued last July V July
4th. I would guess lees than 101
Here are the State of California penalties' for "possession of illegal fireworks"
Penalties
• Should a person be in possession of no more than 25 pounds of illegal fireworks, that person is immediately
guitty of a misdemeanor. After conviction, the person will also receive a fine of at least $500 and no more
than $1,000 by the judge. A judge might also decide that the person should go to jail for up to it year or
upon a combination of fine and jail time. A conviction based on possession of up to 100 pounds of illegal
fireworks results in up to one year in jailor fines up to $5,000. Those possessing up to 5,000 pounds of
illegal fireworks will face fines in the $5,000 to $10,000 range and up to a year in jail. Possession of more
than 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks also means a possible one-year prison sentence and fines going up to
$50,000. Anybody who sells illegal fireworks to someone under 18 faces the same fines and jail time as an
individual first-time conviction.
As you can see in the information above, that the state of California has very serious penalties for
persons in possession of illegal fireworks. The city should change the amount of the current
citation for illegal fireworks from $100 to $.1000 as was done in Garden Grove and other Orange
County cities have. Fireworks are a cash cow to the folks bring in and selling the illegal
fireworks, as it stands right now in the city our fine for the illegal firework citation is $100. Most
folks bring in illegal fireworks would gladly pay the $100 fine from the profits that they made
selling the illegal fireworks. But if the city of Santa Ana adopted the state of California illegal.
fireworks penalty procedure listed above, into the city's municipal rules, and enforced them by
issuing citation there is a good chance to eliminate a lot of the illegal fireworks in Santa Ana.
In closing please do not penalize the non-profit organization who offer there service and
volunteer their free time to the community they five in. Banning the safe and sane fireworks will
not get rid of the illegal fireworks, it will drive the citizens in Santa Ana to other cities to buy
their safe cos sane fireworks and bring them back to our city to celebrate in their own back yards,
and as Mr. Reyna always shop in Santa Ana will not be available!
I believe there has to be a solution and not ban all ,fireworks, and I would remind all of you that if
the council should impose a'ban, I believe that the ,firework companies would have enough
support to ,put the issue of,�qfe_& Sane Firewaarkr on an upcoming' ballot.
Sincerely
AYSO Assistant Area Director