Recommendation to receive and file a report from City Manager on the status of interdepartmental efforts around the education, prevention and enforcement of illegal fireworks in Long Beach, as well as an update on statistics from last year's efforts; and Recommendation to request City Manager and Long Beach Fire Department to partner with neighborhood associations and community groups to disseminate educational materials in advance of July 4th.
Motion passes. Thank you. Item number 18, please. Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilmember Pierce, Councilwoman Mongo. Councilmember Your UNGA recommendation to receive and file a report on the status of inter-departmental efforts around the education, prevention and enforcement of. Illegal fireworks in Long Beach. Thank you. So we know every summer, increasingly our offices are bombarded with phone calls and the police department does a tremendous job in the time leading up to the 4th of July, in the months, months after, for the 4th of July, and dealing with the issue of illegal fireworks. And I wanted to make sure that we do have an opportunity out here in public session to hear from our our fire department about our efforts. I want to highlight one thing. And, you know, this is a really cool lawn sign that's going up in front of my house. I know that it's really sensitive for people who have pets. I know it's sensitive to people who have newborns like myself. I have a pet and a newborn, but it's also a very serious issue to people who value quality of life and, you know, veterans with PTSD and folks who are who are actually harmed by these activities . So I want to hear from our city staff on some of those efforts. And I just have a few questions after that. So let's go ahead and turn it over. Steph, thanks. Chief Mike Duffy Mr. Vice Mayor. Council Members. Good evening. And I'm joined here at the podium with my partner and public safety and city chief Robert Luna. And as was just mentioned, the 4th of July holiday is just under a month away. And as usual, the holiday will be commemorated with block parties, legal and organized fireworks shows and unfortunately, illegal fireworks. As I've reported in the past, the NFPA reports an annual average of about 18,500 fires caused by fireworks from 2009 to 2013. And in 2014, the U.S. hospital emergency rooms treated over 10,500 people for fireworks related injuries. 51% of those injuries were to extremities and 38% were to the head. The risk of fireworks injury is highest for young people ages 5 to 9, followed by children aged 10 to 19. Your police and fire departments have been working together for several months to address fireworks, education and enforcement in a proactive manner and to encourage the Long Beach community to have a safe 4th of July holiday. The staff report will provide a brief summary of these activities. Our primary focus is public outreach and education to communicate that message that all fireworks, even those labeled safe and sane, are dangerous and illegal in the city of Long Beach. As in previous years, the fire department will continue to coordinate public service announcements and press releases, distribute educational materials in English, Spanish, Carmi and Tagalog to communicate our message throughout the city. We are using a variety of media to accomplish this, including social media sites, electronic signage and posting fliers in highly visible locations such as parks, libraries and city busses. An example of what's in city busses is right here, and I'll be able to share that with with you after excuse me. We're also utilizing our CERT program, volunteers and lifeguards, to distribute educational fliers to residents. And additionally, fireworks are illegal. Magnets are now displayed on all fire department apparatus throughout the city. Representatives from the fire department will speak at block parties and other community events about the illegality and dangers of all fireworks. And requests for block party permits will continue to be coordinated through the Special Events Office, but the block party organizer this year must sign a permit stating that they're aware of all regulations, one of which is an acknowledgment that all fireworks are illegal. Our other focus is on enforcement. As you can imagine, our communication center receives hundreds of fireworks related calls on the 4th of July. In the days immediately preceding and following. In many cases, the caller is not able to identify a specific address, making it difficult to locate and report a reported incident. It is also common for a suspect to flee the scene prior to the arrival of fire or police staff. Last year, our enhanced police and fire patrols handled over 80 fireworks related incidents, issued citations and multiple warnings, and seized over £600 of illegal fireworks. Additionally, the fire department responded to five fires and one serious medical emergency, an injury that were all directly related to fireworks. It is important to remember that this increased call load for both fire and police over this holiday period is in addition to what we would normally expect to see in our normal call volumes. This time of year is already typically busy for us in the 4th of July holiday period just compounds that every year we ensure that we have all available personnel on duty to handle what we know will be a very busy period for public safety in Long Beach this year. To respond to reports of illegal fireworks on the nights of July 1st to July 5th, the fire department will deploy two additional patrol vehicles, each staffed with two arson investigators to work in conjunction with our police department's proactive patrols. Patrols will continue to target those areas of the city known for historic use of fireworks and respond to reports of illegal fireworks activity citywide. Anyone cited or arrested for fireworks violations may face a fine of up to $1,000 and be sentenced to jail for up to six months or both. The fines and penalties may increase depending on the fireworks classification. Fireworks may be voluntarily disposed of at collection bins, which are located at all fire and police stations as well as lifeguard headquarters. The above. Measures are these measures are being implemented to encourage community to have a safe 4th of July holiday. And for those who want to view a fireworks show, I would mention that there are two professional firework shows already scheduled one on July 3rd in Alamitos Bay and one on July 4th at the Queen Mary. Mr. Vice Mayor. Mr. Mayor and Council Members, this concludes my report. Chief Luna and I are available to answer any questions you may have. Mr. Chief Looney, you have something that I thank you. Thank you. So. So you see our you know, we are working together, our fire department, our police department, they work hard every year. And we know that if you want to see fireworks, you can go to Alamitos Bay or you can go to the Queen Mary. But we all know those of us who live in our neighborhoods understand that this is going to require a little bit more. We're going to need to work with our neighborhood associations and our neighborhood leaders to make sure that we are doing our part to sort of hold each other accountable. I think we need to send a clear message. I think these these lawn signs will help to send a very clear message. And so I want to I want to, you know, first just ask the chief, how would you envision we could sort of work with our neighborhood groups to disseminate these signs and the other materials that we have? Like, you know, I have this one that's printed in Spanish and we have all you know, we have, you know , English, Spanish, combined, Tagalog, all of all over four languages. What outreach efforts are we doing to make sure that our neighborhood associations and our neighborhood leaders have access these heading into the 4th of July weekend? Mr. Vice Mayor, as of today, I'll give you a rundown of all the activities that we've been doing through our fire prevention and community. And how about, you know, we don't even need all of them. I just think very specifically, if you're a neighborhood association working to get this stuff right, we can get those. You can reach out to Long Beach fire headquarters. We can provide you access to those things. We will be making the rounds out to all the neighborhood associations, community groups, faith based organizations. Also be able to plug people in through our social media sites, our city website next door. A lot of the other social media sites that are active in our communities, we're targeting those as well to get the word out to people and we will be able to provide these these materials to them. Great. And I want to make sure I know funds are limited. So we want to allocate some resources to make sure we have, you know, enough of these lawn signs at our field office and at Fire Station 12, so we can partner to make sure those are available there, right? Yes, sir. Absolutely. And then in terms of we you know, we get a lot of chatter on social media that people don't know how to collect the right information to report, say an adult who's contributing to the delinquency of a minor and engaging here. So I know that the police department does go around to every single one of our neighborhood association meetings every month. So is it possible, Chief Luna, to make sure that over the course of this next month we're equipped with specific message on here's the information that's helpful to actually make sure we can, you know, we can levy a fine or a ticket to someone who's engaging in fireworks. Can we make sure we have a message like that or a training available? Vice Mayor Richardson and members of the City Council, thank you for asking that question. Yes, we have been doing that and will continue to do that and step it up. Honestly, I wish we can get through the 4th of July with issuing zero citations, but I don't believe that's a reality, unfortunately. We are going to stress or encourage community members to make sure that when they do see somebody lighting fireworks that they call our communications center and any time the officers are going out there, we are encouraging the officers when they do see the illegal activity occurring to make sure they do. Issue the citations. And if the parents are involved, there will be consequences for them as well. But I can't tell you how important it is for people when they see this activity to report it. I think somebody will be less likely to do it if they know everybody's watching them and will call the police when they're doing so. Fantastic. So that concludes my my questions. And I just want to say, you know, we're we're one team here as a city. I see the chatter on social media on next door. I get it. I live in the neighborhoods. I understand the only way we can abate this is we really hold our neighbors accountable. So I have this lawn sign up. We'll have them available to our field office. We'll have them available at Fire Station 12. And feel free to continue engaging our police department and engaging your neighbors. Thank you so much and happy 4th of July. Thank you, Councilmember Pearce. Yes. I want to thank Vice Mayor Rex Richardson for bringing this item forward. And I think you asked a lot of the same questions that I was going to ask. I did want to. Find out. Just so I know, every year around 4th of July, everybody says there's not enough officers out. Chief Luna, how many officers do we have out on 4th of July? Lots of them. I understand. It's all of them. I know what I've been told. Yeah, what we do. The 4th of July is the busiest day of the year for the Long Beach Police Department, as well as my partner here from the for the fire department as well. Unless you have a scheduled vacation or there's some unusual circumstances, you are working one of the shifts on the 4th of July. So our staffing is significantly increased for that day. And I'm happy to report, although we're sitting here talking about a very annoying issue with fireworks, that really the men and women that work for the city entire, whether it's public works, the fire department or police department, if you take the last several 4th of July and how many people are in the city celebrating. Yes. And drinking, too. And some other things. We keep this city, at least we have in the past, thank God, very safe with the influx of people we have here. So we've done an amazing job. And I think it's because of our planning. Our strategies have been very effective in dealing with with the fourth. Great. Thank you so much. Again, I just want to commend the work and I know I'll have a sign in my front yard and hopefully my neighborhood associations will also be able to get many signs as well. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Yes, I like to I just one question I can ask both. First of all, I want to commend our police chief and Chief DeVries for this. But because the question I'd like to ask is that can we put these signs up in our parks and recreation areas? Can these signs go up there? Councilmember? Absolutely. We're happy to provide the access to these materials and where you place them. I would leave that up to up to you, certainly. And I would encourage I would encourage, you know, any council member who is interested in getting these signs. We can definitely point you in the right direction. Thank you. Where you place them is up to you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a public comment on this item? Please come forward. Sir. Mr. Goodhew. Very good. I would suggest we do two things. One. Anybody caught doing fireworks? The fine is 1500 dollars. Period. That's an emergency order. Number two, the individual. Will. Spend. 50 hours per month in the animal shelter. And in addition to that. We will pay any off any police officer or fire department member or any other security people. The city wants $1,000 if they find somebody and have for that, find somebody shooting out fireworks. Half of that will go to that officer, be it a policeman, fireman, somebody they hire, a city staff person, whoever. And we all benefit financially by that because quite frankly, posting those signs is useless, period. Half of them after kids will take those and use those. Like they're like the firecrackers from the fire that they set those that they use those to build. So let's get pragmatic about it. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other public comment members, please go ahead and cast your votes.