Fireworks (old)

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

The City of Normandy Park appears to be the last city in Martin Luther King, Jr. County that has not banned fireworks (except by licensed pyrotechnical experts.) Since there is no local ban, the igniting of fireworks is covered by state law. The residents of Normandy Park seem (from past Fire Department records) to have been responsible and have not caused significant problems. Last year, apparently several local radio stations saw fit to broadcast the fact that Normandy Park was the only local jurisdiction in which fireworks could legally be used by private citizens causing an influx of the types of people who have caused other jurisdictions to ban fireworks. What should be done? One suggestion is to go with the flow and ban fireworks in Normandy Park just as the rest of the cities in King County have done, thus punishing the responsible residents of Normandy Park for the actions of the irresponsible. First, one should note that, under state law, a ban enacted by the City Council does not go into effect for one year so, if such a ban were enacted at the June 13, 2006 City Council meeting, it would not ban fireworks until Independence Day 2007. Thus fireworks would still be legal for Independence Day 2006 and New Year’s Eve 2006. I propose that we pass the ban suggested by the Fire Chief and the Police Chief at the June 13 meeting but also inform the populace that if they present us with a petition signed by 400 voters of Normandy Park (10% of the voting public), that we will place a (binding to us) question on the November ballot whether our citizens wish us to keep the ban or rescind it before it goes into effect. It is not clear to me how we would be able to get a reasonable indication of the feelings of the majority of the residents of Normandy Park in any other way. In the mean time, my hope would be that we could find some reasonable way that responsible Normandy Park residents (and their friends) could continue to enjoy setting off fireworks while stopping irresponsible people from out of town coming to Normandy Park and causing trouble. First, we have already prohibited fireworks from all city property (rights of way and parks.) We need to get the School District and non-residential property owners to post their property banning trespass and fireworks (or accept liability and responsibility for the actions of those who do set off fireworks on their property.) I would like to consider making possession of fireworks an aggravating factor in trespass within the city. Could we advertise these rules and suggest that Normandy Park intends to use fireworks as a revenue source by prosecuting (zero tolerance policy) anyone trespassing with fireworks with the fine money going first to pay for extra police and secondarily to the general fund. I would like to suggest that the current state law is unnecessarily broad in the times fireworks are allowed. I would suggest that noon on July 4 until midnight of the same day would allow everyone adequate time to celebrate Independence Day and 8 p.m. December 31 until 1 a.m. January 1st would allow adequate time to celebrate the New Year.