Directors dig into pockets to pay fireworks fee

Fearful of setting a precedent by waiving an $850 fee for Ramona Rotary Club’s July 4 fireworks, Ramona Municipal Water District directors instead dug into their pockets on Tuesday.

Director George Foote donated $300, board president Darrell Beck $200, and director Joe Zenovic $350.

The donations totaling $850 covers the amount needed to pay the district’s fire protection specialist, Jeremy Davis, to oversee the fireworks operations as mandated by the state.

“He’s sworn and he has special certification for pyrotechnics,” Ramona Fire Marshal Steve Foster told the water board at their meeting.

Foster said the state’s Health and Safety Code requires that someone certified in pyrotechnics be on duty when the explosives are unloaded to well after the fireworks display is over for public safety reasons. The fire marshal said that among requirements is inspecting the fireworks and filling out a four-page checklist.

“There’s a lot of things we have to do,” he said.

The $850 amount is based on a 10-hour day for Davis at an overtime rate of $85 per hour.

“That rate is only applied to a holiday and it’s a non-working day,” said Foster, noting that it is a water district fee, not Cal Fire.

The issue was brought to the board by Zenovic, who said to charge the fee to a nonprofit putting on a community event to celebrate the nation’s birthday is unpatriotic.

“It just struck me as that was wrong,” Zenovic said.

Foster said the rate was added to the fee schedule, approved by the board last June, as a cost recovery measure. In the past, the district has absorbed the cost, he said, but that could be considered gifting of public funds.

“What you can’t do is charge ratepayers services that others are receiving,” said Jennifer Lyon of McDougal Love Eckis Boehmer & Foley, the district’s legal counsel.

RMWD could use discretionary property tax revenues to cover the cost, she said, but a process would have to be developed as to how such funds would be disbursed.

Beck said he was concerned that if they waived the fee, other organizations in town would ask for fee waivers.

“I’m still concerned about setting a precedent,” he said.

About 10 people supporting Rotary attended the meeting, including Rotarian Sharon Greene who noted that costs for fireworks are skyrocketing.

The Rotary Club has been trying to raise $30,000 for this year’s free July 4 fireworks display.

“We’re out there literally begging on the streets for funds,” Greene said.

Included in the cost is $1,200 for insurance that Rotary International is no longer covering due to incidents in other communities, she said. In addition, merchants have been contributing less, Greene added.

Although Zenovic made a motion to eliminate the charge to Rotary, no one seconded the motion.

Foote said he supports the fireworks but could not support gifting of public funds so he offered to donate $300 toward the fee. Beck then said he would contribute $200, and Zenovic pledged the remainder — $350.

A $70 application fee that is also charged is part of the pyrotechnics company’s charge to Rotary.

Zenovic announced after a break in the meeting that two women attending — Sue Albright and Margaret Merrill — donated $70 for the application fee.

Rotary’s July 4 Family Picnic and Fireworks will start at 5 p.m. on Independence Day on the fields behind Olive Peirce Middle School. The fireworks will begin at 9 p.m.