Recommendation to request City Manager to report back on how the City can expand its enforcement of fireworks violations through ordinance changes, the City's ability to enhance and/or develop an administrative citation process for fireworks violations, include more technology based ways of reporting fireworks violation, evaluate the possibility of utilizing video to enforce violations, and evaluate the feasibility of video evidence of fireworks violations provided to the City by residents being used in enforcement and/or citations. Data and research compiled by the individual council offices should be utilized as a reference.
Motion carries. Next item is item 14. Item 14 is communication from Councilwoman Price, Council Member Peers, Council Members Lupino and Councilmen Austin. Recommendation to require city managers to report back on how the city can expand the enforcement of fireworks violation through ordinance changes. Administrative citation process for fireworks violation and evaluate the feasibility of video evidence of fireworks violation provided to the city by residents . Thank you. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. This item is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't waste too much of my colleague's time talking about it. I would like to say that a lot of the recommendations that are included in this item were recommendations that residents from the third District actually worked on. They spent countless hours studying the issue, looking at what best practices are in other cities. We have one of the members of the committee here, and I think the the approaches that are being used by other cities are certainly an opportunity for us to continue to mitigate the impacts of illegal fireworks in the city. It's important to note that the amount of illegal fireworks activity that we get during the month of July places a huge burden on our public safety resources. For the 24 hour period of July 4th, the dispatch center handled 3200 calls 911, and the non-emergency line and 1419 calls were calls for service. This represents more than a 35% increase on the 4th of July versus the average day. So to the extent that we can try to mitigate some of these concerns and enhance quality of life for our residents, I think looking at best practices that are utilized, such as administrative citations, video evidence that we use and many other types of criminal cases should be things that we look at here in the city of Long Beach, and I ask my colleagues to support this item. Thank you, Councilman Huston. Well, I would certainly sign on to support and and I will do that. I am if we have laws on the books, we should support and enforce our laws on the books. You know, I have always been very I've had my reservations about both safe and sane fireworks because they are legal all the way around us and I think is very difficult to to enforce that as a result of it. And I certainly don't want to see, you know, young people penalized more than they need to be. I again, I want to support this, but I also want to look at better education efforts. And if I would offer a friendly two to look at that, there were some things that I saw this this past year that I thought was very effective, implemented in other cities. Like hear from the city attorney in the city of Los Angeles on the airways doing public service announcements. I'd like to see more of that here. The impacts on on veterans and pets, those those that education effort, I think goes a long way to to help. And I'll just say this year, it seemed to me that our efforts paid off a little bit better because the impacts weren't as profound as last year. That's just an observation from from my neighborhood. But I can't speak for all. But it did it did seem like we improved in this year. And so I compliment all of our our our city team, our law enforcement, firefighters for for their great work and their hard work to to mitigate this. I'm happy to support that. You. The other. One? Yes, sir. Thank you. Pierce, please. Yes, thank you. I also support this item. You know, I think that there were some great ideas presented by the committee that worked on this. And the education piece is one key parcel echo Councilmember Austin's comments, having social media videos where it's hip and funny and some way to make sure that we're educating the community about the impacts. I think particularly in our districts where we're on the beach, we have a lot of people that will do their fireworks on the street and then take them down to the beach and it turns into a whole party zone all the way up to Seventh Street. So I know that we did see a reduction also whenever we did the sign. So I would ask that the city and ask also be included on that education piece. I don't feel like any staff is listening. Oh, they're listening. How are you guys doing? I just wanted to make sure that we're also including some costs towards the education components, not only on the video side, but I think the streets that we know in our neighborhoods that have people, that there's one street in my neighborhood every single year, they're doing the major large fireworks. So having those signs on the street really help, making sure that we're not tossing out simple solutions like that that let them know that somebody on that street is going to call PD and then also exploring the idea around the go Long Beach shop. I know if Councilmember Mongeau was here, she'd want to bring that up. If there is an option for how are we tracking, putting that power in the residents hands and then possibly sending a follow up, a letter or citation or warning, I think would be really helpful. So I hope we support this item. Thank you very much. A super constitutional. Thank you. I'd like to thank Councilwoman Price for bringing this item forward. I enthusiastically support it. I signed on to it. I also want to mention again the third district group who studied this and I for all their time and energy and expertize. And I think the last being they were here past 11:00 at night to present. So we thank them for that, too. And I believe last year we came up with that theme of vets and pets. And another issue is brought to my attention this year by a fourth District resident, and that is newborns. To any parent, if you can imagine taking all that time to get your newborn to sleep and then be awakened by a firework. So that's another part of the study I think we should include. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yeah, I just wanted to chime in for my support, but also say I'd like to see some data. I'd like to actually see, you know, a report on maybe a heat map on calls for service and responses across all of the police divisions. That's what I'd like to see, because I think that would really help us to see a picture of, you know, where is this really happening? Where are the troubles and possibly how we're responding to that in terms of resource allocation. So if you if you open the ad and that is a friendly that's a great idea. I want to see it. I want to see like like a heat map or data like response data calls and response from police and fire for the 4th of July. Thanks. Thank you. Also, I'd like to thank Mr. Price for bringing this item forward. You know, this 4th of July was ridiculous in the Wrigley neighborhood. And have residents been enough? They said enough fireworks is going off at all times of the night. And I was. So I do one attribute a decrease in the calls to our police department on 4th of July to outreach that was done prior to the holidays. But I also want to point out that many people do not call because they know that on that day our public safety officers are overwhelmed with calls. I'm hopeful that the report back brings up a responsible and feasible, you know, enforcement opportunity for this issue. And I do not want to see residents put themselves in danger by recording others, you know, setting off fireworks. But I do think we need to come up with an alternative that allows enforcement enforcements, even if police officers does not personally witness the crime. Thank you very much. Do you have a public comment on this? Yes, sir. Please come forward. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr.. Here. Round two. Here we go. Michael Caldwell, First District. I live I live between fourth and fifth street on Magnolia Avenue. I have fireworks literally five feet outside my door. Beginning around 8:00, going all the way to midnight. I heard more fireworks going off than police sirens going off. I agree with what Councilman. Richardson says. That there needs to be more police done because what was basically happening was that I would see a patrol car. Go by. Then, like, okay, clear. Boom. All right. There's no siren. I mean. And no offense, but video use, do some good old fashioned detective work. You can hear it. You can see it. You know where you need to go? Go. Okay. You don't need to. Oh, we need to check tape. Where was it? What was. What was it? No, no, no. It doesn't work like that. My other big question is, and I've asked this for over 40 years, in 1983 was the first time I went down to Ocean Avenue to see the big fireworks display on the 4th of July. And then as I come back. Home and I asked my mom, I'm go. That's a great fireworks show, mom. I was so. Excited. I was six years old. She goes, Yeah, but unfortunately they're illegal. In Long Beach. And I gave her that. That cute little six. Year old look and go, What does. Illegal mean, Mommy? Well. They're not allowed. I'm like, Then. What did we just see? We saw fireworks being shot by the by the Queen Mary. It was the greatest thing in the world. Why are fireworks going off if they're not allowed? What's up with that? How does that work? I've been asking that question for 40 years and I'm like, you cannot promote this enough in the press telegram the week before the 4th of July. They are illegal in Long Beach. How are people bringing them in? Easy. They're going to Lakewood. They're going to Hawaiian Gardens. They're going to Cerritos. They're going to Cyprus. They're going to all those cool little fireworks stands. And they're bringing in the fireworks. Wow. There's a concept. My brother did this. I lived on Bellflower and Arbor, right by the Lakewood border. He would go. And buy fireworks. He would literally cross the street into the Lakewood border and shoot off his piccolo Petes. Guess what? I am in Lakewood. I'm not in Long Beach. I don't get to go to jail. I can fire up the fireworks. I'm like, Dude, you cannot do that. You're like, Yes, I can, because of a little bitty loophole. So if you could answer that question as to. Why in a. Safe area the fireworks are going off when they are not allowed in this city. Please give me that answer and I will let this go. Thank you. Thank you. Next question. My name is Snake Information resident of Sixth District. Personally. I don't think fireworks are a big deal. You know. I think that our police force and our fire department have more important things to do than to listen to 3200 calls about people shooting up two $3 fireworks. I mean, the reality of a situation, much as in the city of Chicago, which has some of the most stringent gun control laws in the country, people just drive two or 3 hours south. And they go to Indiana and they buy all the. Guns that they want. It's the same reality here. Fireworks aren't going away as the gentlemen to perform you just said. You can buy it in a in a 5 to 10 mile radius. It's just like this. I saw I was actually here for the committee from third district for their presentation. And one of the things that they said was potentially creating a pathway for a misdemeanor into a felony for. Laying off fireworks like some of that stuff. That's a joke. But you can't. That was part of the presentation. I was I was here. It was one of the recommendations. I don't believe that's correct. But one of the committee members is here. If there's any situation where lighting fireworks would be felonious conduct. It was done. I said the pathway to following is the speaker. I remember it. It's just it's not a reality. And, you know, that's not it's not going to change the situation or the reality of people on 4th of July like to light fireworks, you know, even it's something we have to deal with because of some of that's been happening for the last 30, 40 years. The man just in 1983, you see fireworks. He was shooting them off. It's 2018 because they shouldn't have fireworks like that's the reality of the situation. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of resources. And clearly, you know, sales taxes and parcel taxes are, you know, opportunities for people, for things, for people. We don't want to be a resource to sales taxes. And parcel taxes are ways that we don't want to use taxpayers money here. I think the same thing we shouldn't have to pass on to the law enforcement to to work extra hard to do something that's going to happen for the next two weeks after what it's like. We know what's going to happen. It's the same the same thing that happens every year. I think what we could do as a solution is create designated areas for people to shoot our fireworks so that it would probably mitigate and at best dampen or create some type of decrease of where people are shooting out the fireworks instead of on streets. Maybe we can do it in designated areas. That way there would be less elderly people and newborns and veterans. And whatever your excuse we use for why we need to stamp out on those and we and we can actually try to have some effective change because the reality is, is the ways that these these solutions are being suggested are the reality you're not going to catch someone on social media. And that being used as a way to, you know, set down fireworks. Give me a break. The Shukla resident. The third, I think there's an interim municipal issue here, as we've heard. I mean, I grew up with one riding my bike to Lakewood was fine when I was a kid. But the reason why in 83 were two good reason why in 83 and in 2018 we have these ordinances just because we have our own gas and oil department and the cities that that don't mind selling stuff to. Our residents might want to be asked about why they like that tax base from selling, you know, fireworks, but they don't mind having those costs or potential risks externalized on to our residents or our city. And it's important. I mean, you know, we've had instances in the city, I mean, Signal Hill Fire, we've had some major, major issues with the accident gas infrastructure, oil infrastructure. A lot of the stuff that, you know, 100 years ago made us what we are, but we can no longer be committed to, not if we want a livable planet and organized life and all these good things that make life worth living. I'm looking forward to the report and I appreciate a lot of the time that was put into it. But the one thing I'd like to stress with my time here to all of you is the urge to criminalize or to tax. I mean, the original meaning of the word a tax is just an undue burden or just a burden. Something's got to be carried. Maybe it's financial costs. Maybe it's a social cost, other ways of determining cost. Just like we have different ways of determining price. The urge to criminalize the urge to have your neighbors report each other on video surveillance and, you know, report each other on social media. What kind of city are we creating where that's what we got to do for the sake of gas and oil, but for the sake of that infrastructure. Is there a better way? Are there ways that this can be amended? This can with with more data, with more understanding of what the pressures are, meet all the requirements we have, some of which, you know, some of which are really serious. I mean, we don't want a lot of that signal hill infrastructure ever catching on fire again. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Inspector. Oh, no, please. Good evening. I'm. I'm Ken Weiss, and I'm the chairman of the Fireworks Advisory Committee. And I have to thank you for voting to move forward on the administrative process. I can tell you I was one with personally researched the other cities on this issue and the city of Rancho Cucamonga significantly reduced their fireworks problem by implementing this piece of legislation. And I think it's something that can really be a benefit to the community because I think there's a lot of people who see fireworks going off that don't know where to turn. And by coupling this with the Golden Beach map and and and having the information go to the city attorney and a letter going out, these people, it's a start in getting control over the situation a little bit, and I think it's a good thing. In terms of the comment about the messaging. We have a very exciting component that we're working on right now for the for the school age kids, because this is a generational problem. And I say this kind of guardedly, but, you know, the 40 year old, we've already asked them they're going to light off fireworks, they're going to shoot guns, they're going to drink, they're going to take drugs. The what you have to do is you have to get to the kids because the kids will go back to their parents. And they're the ones that will say to their parents, you know, I learned X in school or at the recreation department. And Dad, I don't really think we should be shooting off fireworks. And that's how you make the change. It's a real generational issue, and we're working on that. We're also working on some other out-of-the-box solutions that we didn't have time for this year. And I think give it a little bit of time. We're going to really turn this thing around. So that's all I have to say. But and thank you for supporting us tonight. Thank you very much. So thank you. I would suggest what I suggested a couple of years ago. First of all, $10,000 fine and 50% of that fine, the dollars will go to the police that the policemen that arrest the individual. And that individual also will be required to work at the animal shelter for three years. That's one of the best ways, I think, to serve this community and serve the police department. Give them a percentage of that money and have the perps that set those off the guilty spend that time in the animal shelters. Thank you. You can sooner. Yes. Come to an answer. Thank you. And I was gonna not speak on this, but I think I needed to just. Just also raise. And in terms of the education issue that we have around fireworks. Most of the the fireworks in the as the the the item says the fireworks creating negative impacts to neighborhoods and community quality of life are the fireworks that are not purchased in California. They are coming from another country. They're coming from another state. These are the illegal fireworks in in every other city that even have safe and sane fireworks. So the fireworks that you're buying in Lakewood and or in the neighboring city aren't the fireworks that are making the noise. Right. They don't go up in the air. They don't go boom. Right. Those are not the fireworks that you are buying at the safe and sane fireworks. And so I think we need to also have an honest conversation about fireworks. Right. The impacts and what are the negative impacts? These are the illegal fireworks. The these are the. Matties These are the the the. I don't even know the name of them anymore. But these are things that are going in the air that that truly have a a destructive and dangerous impact. Right. These are fireworks that can set trees on fire. These are the fireworks that are giving your veterans PTSD in trauma episodes. These are the fireworks that are that are that are really impacting your pets. And these are the fireworks that are making babies not sleep well. Right. But I think we need to figure out a way to focus on and in our public safety efforts on those fireworks, as opposed to having our public safety officials running and inciting people for sparklers that are not having no negative impact. And and so I wanted to just just just add that to the piece. I'm going to support this item. But I honestly think that this requires a a longer conversation, a more detailed conversation. I'd like to see our public safety resources focused on on the on the true dangerous type of fireworks that that that are having the most negative impacts on on our communities. Thank you, Councilman Spirit. Yeah. I just wanted to echo that same statement. I think on our block, we do have a house party house that likes to party often. And they every 4th of July for two weeks, you know, covering before and after set off the large ones. And we know that some years we've had people lose limbs. We know that every neighbor on our block, they all go in and make sure they get some pet value for all their pets so that they can take care of their animals. And it's a preparation that people really shouldn't have to take. So I want to echo that statement. And then I do think the conversation is interesting. We have our beaches, which you go down there. People are setting off illegal fireworks. Some of us on this council know this. We've seen it. And so I am curious, are there cities where they did designate a certain area for people, whether it's sparklers or something else, or is there any gray area in the middle that we've seen cities be successful? I'm just curious. Okay. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Councilman. Just want to add in one more thing. I think the video, you know, if we can figure out how to do that, that's cool. But we should also be talking about diversion for young people. Last thing I want to do is load up young people with fines and get them off the right track. I think we should hold them accountable, but we should think about community service. We should think about, you know, diversion for fireworks offenses. If if this truly moves forward and we do actually penalize more people, we should just think about how we handle those kids it a little more intentionally. Thanks. Fine. Thank you. I see we're. I'm the first 10 seconds. Let's take a vote. Which in case a. Thank you note, go to the concert calendar. I think we have five speakers. First would be Mr.. Very good. You know person. Andrew George. I work at a public company. Any anyone public comment?