In a June decision, the council voted 3-2 – with Council members Jim Irwin and Suzanne Lyons voting no – to change a city ordinance and prohibit safe and sane, or state-approved, fireworks in Lakeport. At that time, Lakeport was the last area in the county to allow them.
After that decision, local nonprofit groups that sold the fireworks as an annual fundraiser – Clear Lake High School Booster Club, Miss Lake County Scholarship Organization, Terrace School Parent Teacher Organization and the Lake County Channel Cats – along with American Promotional Events and TNT Fireworks, began gathering signatures for a ballot initiative, to give city residents the final say on the issue.
On Tuesday night City Clerk Janel Chapman reported that 693 signatures were collected and 424 met the criteria of being city residents.
She said the council had three options: accept a proposed ordinance the groups had authored that would allow fireworks to continue, with additional time restrictions during the July 4 holiday week and money set aside for public safety; call for an election; or request a study period to work with the groups on a compromise.
If the city requested a consolidated election with the county's general election on Nov. 3, rather than hold a special election in December, it would save Lakeport $10,000, Chapman said.
Several representatives of the nonprofit groups involved in the initiative effort and community members spoke to the council, asking its members to consider working with them to craft a compromise.
All of them pointed to larger issues beyond fireworks – primarily, the need for a fundraising outlet for local groups and schools.
Tom Jordan, president of the Clear Lake High School Boosters Club, said of the three options the one that made the most sense was to form a study group, and sit down and work through the issues. That would save the city the cost of an election.
Dennis Revell of Revell Communications, representing American Promotional Events and TNT Fireworks, told the council that initiative supporters gathered hundreds more signatures than they needed to in order to get on the ballot.
“There were a number of people who chose to register to vote just because of this issue,” he said.
He said Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley estimated that having the initiative on the Nov. 3 ballot as part of a consolidated election with the county and local school districts would cost approximately $4709.76. However, a standalone election in December would cost an estimated $14,129.29.
He said the options the groups were presenting – the alternative fireworks ordinance or a study group – made sense.
Vicki Hays, a mother of two high schoolers who is the Clear Lake High School Booster Club secretary, said this past July 4 felt sad and unpatriotic without fireworks and the fireworks booths.
“One of the reasons I have stayed in this county is because of the small town feel and that was totally missing this Fourth of July,” Hays said.
Rob Alves, treasurer of the Terrace School Parent Teacher Organization, joked to a stony faced council that, with the state threatening to take billions of dollars from cities and counties, the city itself might have to sell fireworks to make ends meet.
He said the funds his group has raised through fireworks sales have helped the school district,which he said is “going dramatically backwards” when it comes to funding.
Alves said the groups were making a good faith effort to work with the city and introduced “reasonable restrictions” to address officials' concerns about fire danger. He said he hoped they would sympathize.
Jill Ruzicka Leighton, a parent and volunteer with both the booster club and the parent teacher organization, said that the budget cuts coming out of Sacramento “are just killing us.”
“That's when the parents and the community needs to step up to the plate and fill that financial void,” she said.
If the council didn't support fireworks sales, she asked them to think of other options to raise money in order to help create well educated children.
Jennifer Hanson of the Lake County Channel Cats said the group has been working hard to raise funds. They brought in $200 at a recent barbecue, $500 at a wine tasting and will take part in a pancake breakfast event that's planned for Aug. 8.
Fireworks brought thousands of dollars to the groups each year, she said. “The $10,000 that each group is losing, it's real difficult to recoup that,” Hanson said. “We really need these fireworks.”
Bonnie Bonnett said she was involved in fireworks sales for years because of her children's activities. She said she's never seen so many people come together around an event as they did when selling fireworks. Initially, Bonnett said she didn't like fireworks but she came to appreciate them.
She also took part in making sure the city was cleaned up after annual July 4 festivities. “We were vigilant, caring citizens for our little community. And that's gone.”
Bonnett said some of those people sitting on the council and in the city administration had been involved in fireworks sales over the years. “Why the change in heart, I don't know,” Bonnett said, noting there have been other drought years.
“I hope we can still work together,” she said.
Karen Wilson, with the Miss Lake County Scholarship Organization, said the money raised by fireworks has helped supply young women with scholarships. For the last two years, Miss Lake County has received a $2,500 scholarship, far better than the $400 the city of Los Angeles gives its pageant winner.
Councilman Roy Parmentier said he had a problem with the group's initiative, because it limited the fireworks sales to the four specific nonprofits that previously had been allowed to sell them.
He said if they wanted it passed, they should open it to all nonprofits, who will be required to place their names in a hat and a drawing will determine who gets to sell that year. Otherwise, said Parmentier, it was giving them a monopoly.
If they change that aspect of the proposed language, Parmentier said he might accept it. “Right now, not a chance.”
Councilman Bob Rumfelt moved to order an election and adopt a resolution seeking a consolidated election with the county in November. Parmentier seconded the motion.
Lyons said this is the second year without safe and sane fireworks, and the first year that anyone has ever shot a bottle rocket into her yard. They then shot a second and a third, she said. The people responsible told her they had purchased the illegal fireworks locally, claiming they thought they were safe and sane.
“If people aren't getting safe and sane fireworks, what are they gonna have?” she asked.
Lyons said she would rather see a fool with safe and sane fireworks than a fool with a bottle rocket, which earned her a round of applause from the audience.
The council voted 3-2 – with Irwin and Lyons again voting no – to call the November election.
“It's going to be up to the public to vote on this,” Mayor Ron Bertsch said at the end of the discussion.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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