Rohnert Park council votes to ban sale, use of fireworks

The Rohnert Park City Council this week voted to ban the sale and use of fireworks within the city limits, adding to the long list of local municipalities that have placed restrictions on the Fourth of July explosives amid the region’s ongoing wildfire threat.

The ban, pending approval of a final ordinance, passed by a 3-2 vote during a Tuesday’s City Council meeting after receiving support from Mayor Gerard Giudice, Vice Mayor Jackie Elward and City Councilmember Willy Linares.

Councilwomen Susan Adams and Pam Stafford both voted to impose no regulations on the use and sale of legal fireworks.

The decision was followed by subsequent votes by the council to plan a city-sponsored Fourth of July festival and professional fireworks display, as well as a directive to city staff to research ways the city can help the more than a dozen nonprofits that organize annual fireworks booths to raise money for their causes.

“I’m taken with the issues of climate and I’m taken with the issues of fire danger,” Giudice, who did not return a phone and email request for comment on Thursday, said during the council meeting. “When we take an oath as a council member, we take an oath to protect the health and safety of the community.”

With the vote, Rohnert Park joins the County of Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Petaluma and four other towns that have banned fireworks altogether.

Sebastopol instituted a one-year ban on the sale of fireworks last year, though the council has not revisited the topic again in 2021, Sebastopol City Manager Larry McLaughlin said.

An attempt to ban the sale and use of personal fireworks in Cloverdale for a year last year failed to win enough support among City Council members to pass.

The Rohnert Park City Council’s move to ban fireworks sales has frustrated organizers of several Rohnert Park nonprofits who say they’re left scrambling to find alternative fundraising avenues at a time when the pandemic has already stunted other means of raising money.

They include Vickie Gilbert, vice president of the Rancho Cotate High School Music Boosters, who said she raised $11,000 for the high school’s music program over the course of just a few days’ work last year through the boosters’ fireworks stall near the Rohnert Park Reading Cinemas movie theater.

The funds are a significant portion of the $20,000 the booster program aims to raise every year, money that goes toward paying for scholarships for kids, sheet music and instrument repairs not already covered by the school, Gilbert said.

“If they were going to ’x’ this off, they should have told us in August,” Gilbert said. “I’m at a loss of words because I don’t know what to do.”

Gilbert also said she was doubtful the city will be able to help her organization and others who run the fireworks booth recoup the full amount they normally raise despite council members’ comments to help support local programs affected by the ban.

Tony Geraldi, a Sonoma County resident who works as the general manager for Sonoma County Airport Express, said he was a fervent supporter of the Rohnert Park City Council’s decision to ban the use and sale of fireworks.

Besides the mental stress that fireworks can have on pets, veterans with PTSD and wildfire survivors triggered by the scent of smoke, they also raise the risk of wildfires in a region that’s still recovering from a series of destructive blazes.

“We’ve gotten to the point where fireworks, they’re not safe anywhere in Sonoma County,” Geraldi said. “We live in a tinder box, fire-prone county.”

The Rohnert Park City Council is expected to revisit the ban in about two weeks, when city staff will present council members with a draft ordinance for their final approval, Rohnert Park City Manager Darrin Jenkins said.

City staff will need to conduct additional research before presenting the council with options for the Fourth of July festival, Jenkins said.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.