HomeMy WebLinkAboutFIREWORKS 09-08-81DATE:
TO:
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SUBJECT:
9/3/81
Inter-Corn
HONORABLE MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL
JAMES G. ROURKE, CITY ATTORNEY
FIREWORKS
For your information, enclosed is an article that appeared in
yesterday'S Los Angeles Times.
JGR:se:D:9/3/81
Enclosure
cc: B.H.
By BILL BILLITER, T/roes Staff Wr/ter
SACRAMENTO--Los Angeles, San Jose
_and several other cities are fighting a last-
minute battle to kill a fireworks bill that in
barreling through the Legislature.
The measure, carried by Senate Republt-
_can Leader William Campbell of Hacienda
Heights, would prohibit cities and counties
from outlawing the sale of so-called "safe-
. and-sane" legal fireworks within their juris-
dictions.
- - Los Angeles, San Jose and about 80.other
cities in California now prohibit the sale of
fireworkw.
· "If this bill passes, we lose the right to local'
--control," said Los Angeles Councilman Zev
Yaroslavsky in an interview..
"It would be one of the mo~t blatant usur~
potions of local power I've ever seen.,
-~ FireOfficiaisOppos~d
Many fire officials, including the state fire
marshal, oppose the Campbell bill, saying it
would encourage the spread of fireworks and
--thus the fire hazard. But despite the opposi~
tion, Campbell's bill is moving full steam
,~head in the Legislature.
Campbell's office said ~he senator makes no
--~,'crct of the fact that he is carrying the fire-
::~rks legislation for a friend and constituent,
?at Moriarty, prema/~fff of Pyrotronlcs Corp.
of Anaheim, the largest fireworks manufac-
_~ur..~r in the country.
On Monday, the fireworks bill was one of a.
handful of measures that was debated and
endorsed by the key Assembly Ways and
Means Committee, which in swamped with a
· backlog of about ll0 bills. The committee, by
a 14-7 vote, sent the Camp. bell bill to the A~-
sembly floor, where it is expected to be voted
on 8oon.
A~ the bill cleared the Senate, it was an in-
nocuous measure dealing with fire hose cou-
plings and it wes supported by the state fire
marshal. Campbell amended his bill in the
Assembly Government Operations Commit-
tee to include the controversial .fireworks
provision.
Not by Surprise
"We had heard rumors that the bill was
going to be amended, .so we were not taken
completely by surprise," said Norman Boyer,
lobbyist for the City of Los Angeles.
Boyer recalled that many firefighters also
attended that committee meeting two weeks
ago to try to' head off the amendment. "It
looked like a convention of fire officials,"
Boyer said.
Despite their opposition the bill sailed out
Of the committee on an 8-2 vote.
"I think the chances of stopping the bill are
now slim," said Yaroslavsky. "I've asked the
governor to veto the bill. He told me he would
look into it."
Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.'s office reporte
that he has not yet taken a position on the bil:
Yaroslavsky said the bill is especially re
pugnant to him because "for years the fire
works people have been unsuccessful i~
trying to get the (Los Angeles) City Counci
to change the law, and n~w they're trying h
get the state to force it down our throat."
Campbell, however, has contended that hi~
bill is nothing more than clarification of ~
1974 state law that legalized the sale of "safe-
and-sane" fireworks. He said that law left i'
unclear whether a city can ban the sale o:
such fireworks, although he said it was clear-
ly the intent of the 1974 Legislature for th(
state to preempt that power.
Groups Raise Mo~ey .
Campbell told the Assembly Ways anc
Means Committee that local governmen~
would still be able to maintain control ove~
fireworks under hin bill because they coulC
regulate their use and where they could be
sold. The cities and Counties, however, could
not totally ban the sale of fireworks.
Several representatives .of charitable
groups that raise money by selling firework,~
testified in support of Campbell's bill. Camp-
bell said that last year charities raised $7 mil-
lion selling "safe-and-sane" fireworks.