Richmond council moves to crack down on illegal fireworks

The Richmond City Council voted Tuesday to draft tougher penalties for illegal fireworks, including holding party hosts liable for fireworks set off on their property.

The item, sponsored by Councilmembers Cesar Zepeda, Jamelia Brown, and Soheila Bana, passed on the consent calendar with only Councilmember Sue Wilson voting no. It directs the city attorney and city manager to propose amendments to Richmond’s fireworks ordinance within 90 days, including a social host liability provision and administrative fines of up to $1,000 per device for a first offense and $2,500 for repeat offenders within a year.

Mayor Eduardo Martinez, who moved the item to the consent calendar before the vote, added his reservation. “I’m not sure that staff will have the capacity to return it within 90 days,” he said.

Wilson, who said she came to the meeting prepared to debate the item, had additional concerns she said she never got to voice.

“I did research that shows that raising fines does not deter behavior, but it does increase hunger and housing instability for the people who are unfortunate enough to get hit with those fines,” Wilson said, adding that she could not in good conscience vote yes. She ultimately cast her no vote on the fireworks item alone while voting yes on the rest of the consent calendar.

City Manager Shasa Curl acknowledged the deadline could be difficult to meet, pointing to what she described as a "significant development" the previous Friday.

“On Friday, we had a significant change,” Curl said. “We just need time to make sure the council has information in June on that.”

Curl appeared to be referring to a ballot initiative filed days earlier that would require the city to maintain at least 187 sworn officers and dedicate up to half of locally generated revenue to public safety.

The vote came after public comments from residents who said illegal fireworks have made summers in Richmond increasingly unbearable.

Janice Haugen, a Richmond resident, called on the council to create separate fine tiers for different types of fireworks, distinguishing between sparklers, aerial devices, and M-80s. Haugen noted that current enforcement tools have improved.

“Last summer, using drones as first responders, over a dozen violators were cited, and over $10,000 worth of fireworks was seized,” Haugen said. “The problem is that Richmond’s current fine for a first-time offense is only $250. A violator could discharge dozens, even hundreds of fireworks, and that’s the highest fine they could get. It’s not enough of a deterrent.”

Haugen also laid out how the proposed host liability provision would work in practice.

“I reserve a picnic area in a park. My friend at the picnic shoots off fireworks. I would be held liable as the host, unless I called the police to report them,” she said.

Fireworks debris left on a Richmond street the morning after Fourth of July.

Julie Freestone, a Richmond resident and member of the group Stop Illegal Fireworks, said the city has already begun to make a dent.

“Last year we worked with the city police department, fire department, and public works to make sure everyone in Richmond knew that fireworks are illegal,” Freestone said. “Our survey after July 4 last year reported people felt we had made a dent in reducing the noise and danger, and we still have a lot more work to do.”

Freestone also echoed the concern that San Pablo’s tougher ordinance, adopted last year, could push the problem into Richmond. “People in our neighboring city can come here because they see it’s a safer, cheaper place to celebrate,” she said. “That’s not okay.”

Nancy Powell, a nine-year resident of the North and East neighborhood, described one particularly bad stretch around the Fourth of July in recent years.

“It was like a week or 10-day process of living in a fire zone,” Powell said. “The more impunity there is for people who engage in setting off the explosives, the illegal fireworks, the more sense of impunity there is for other crimes like speeding, reckless driving.”

Powell also called on the city to dedicate a separate phone line for fireworks complaints, saying she could not get through when she tried to report fireworks in previous years.

Staff is expected to return with proposed ordinance language within 90 days.

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