City Council gives more teeth to illegal fireworks enforcement
May 5—There were fireworks at this week's Hanford City Council meeting — the Council voted 5-0 to adopt an ordinance that Fire Chief Steven Pendergrass said will better help the department enforce laws pertaining to the use of illegal fireworks.
"I just want to start by saying that we have an ordinance for legal fireworks and we have an ordinance for illegal fireworks. This is strictly the illegal fireworks ordinance," he said Tuesday evening.
The introduction of Ordinance No. 22-01 will amend most sections of Chapter 8.11 of the Hanford Municipal Code pertaining to illegal fireworks.
Not wanting to redefine the terms of what is "legal" and "illegal," Pendergrass wants to make sure local ordinance verbiage enables better efficacy in dealing with illegal fireworks.
"I'm seeing an increase, especially in my district, in illegal fireworks," Councilmember Francisco Ramirez said, adding that he'd like to raise the fines to $2,000. "We need to send a message that illegal fireworks are not welcome in Hanford."
Ramirez cited the toll that fireworks can take on members of the community suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pets who may be sensitive to loud noises as reasons to crack down on illegal fireworks.
Other cities, including Tulare, Porterville and Visalia are looking at increasing fines to more than the $1,000 state level, Pendergrass said. Since Hanford is a general law city, rather than a charter city, it has to follow the state's lead and cannot raise the fines higher than the state level.
Asked by Mayor Kalish Morrow how effective enforcement of firework laws is in Hanford, Pendergrass stated that a consensus of the state's fire chiefs finds that enforcement cannot be very effective, though that doesn't mean that that cities should ignore the problem.
"We want to deter it as best we can," he said.
Drones, increased staffing and community-based apps used to report illegal activity may be able to help, he said.
Pendergrass said that he has no problem with legal fireworks, partly because they're so popular and partly because Hanford doesn't have the risks that other areas might have.
"We don't have the wildland threat that Porterville or even Fresno has," he said.
When asked how effective the City is at collecting on fines issued, City attorney Ty Mizote said that the City can apply property liens or use other methods to enforce fines.
"There are a lot of illegal fireworks out there and it's a problem that nobody has been able to solve yet," Pendergrass said.
The ordinance would also establish a hearing officer appointed by the city manager to manage appeals in lieu of the current hearing body.
