The claim a TNT fireworks representative made last week contending eight non-profits “made” $250,000 that sold his firm’s pyrotechnics in Manteca caught the attention of the City Council.
At face value, it would seem each non-profit “cleared” $31,250 apiece for a week’s worth of volunteer labor.
That number piqued Councilman Charlie Halford’s interest.
Halford has — off and on — been involved with nonprofits since 2005 that have secured the opportunity to sell fireworks once Manteca made it legal to do so via a lottery.
At first, most non-profits were bringing in north of $10,000 net. One church group that used their own property to sell fireworks and was able to call upon their large congregation for the bulk of the sales, topped $30,000.
They also benefited from Manteca being the only city south of Lodi in San Joaquin County that allowed the sale of legal fireworks at the time.
But then other nearby jurisdictions started allowing the sale and use of legal safe and sane fireworks.
Within several years, some of the nonprofits that shared the information among 14 fireworks permit holders were “grossing” — after paying for the fireworks they sold — and clearing $8,000 or less for their efforts.
The payments to property owners that 18 years ago were often in excess of $2,000 that was deducted from the gross as was insurance coverage addendums, renting the booths including fire extinguishers and pay point devices, as well as securing containers to store fireworks when stands were closed.
Now it can cost $15,000 to rent a location such as at Yosemite Avenue and Union Road.
It got to the point, there were non-profits clearing only $4,000 in seven days.
Location of stands, of course, mattered.
Even if a nonprofit secured $4,000, for some that is a significant amount.
But why it matters at all is the No. 1 reason back in 2005 justifying tossing Manteca’s ban on fireworks of any kind except for aerial displays staged by the city was to help non-profits.
Consider it, if you will, the forerunner to the ”community benefit” aspect of legal storefront cannabis sales that are on their way to Manteca.
Halford — a numbers guy — wants the city do a sanity check, if you will.
He’d like to see the city obtain information from non-profits this year that were allowed to sell fireworks by providing hard numbers to the city.
That means fixed costs such as property rental, insurance. and storage as well as wholesale expenses.
And as Halford pointed out, if non-profits don’t particularly want to share the information the city can make it a condition of their securing a permit to sell fireworks in the lottery process.
This is not the city being heavy handed.
This is not an issue of the city trying to run a private business.
This is a question of serving the public intertest and making sure public safety is paramount.
The only reason why safe and sane fireworks are allowed to be sold and used in Manteca was because of a local decision based on state law.
The reason they were banned for years was the concern that what is now happening would happen.
Simply put, legal fireworks would give illegal fireworks users cover.
Yes, the possibility of the city jacking up illegal fireworks fines to $2,500 may be a further detriment, but let’s be honest.
There are more than a few people in Manteca today who a $2,500 hit would get their attention but would likely not hurt them.
Halford said the data the city collects could set the stage for reducing the number of fireworks stand permits or — although the odds are greater that Trump will be the nominee for president for the Democratic Party in 2024 with Joe Biden as his vice presidential candidate — banning all fireworks within Manteca.
The real winner here, of course are the two companies allowed to sell safe and sane fireworks in California — Phantom and TNT.
If you noticed, the fireworks weren’t as cheap as they were in previous years.
And at the same time packaged deal prices didn’t really go up but the number of fireworks in them went down.
There is little doubt that fireworks firms protected their take.
Meanwhile, non-profits — the very reason why the city allowed legal fireworks in the first place and that in turn has subjected the city to the need to put more frontline personnel on the streets during the Fourth of July holiday — are being squeezed.
Mayor Gary Singh sees another avenue the city can pursue.
Singh believes the city should charge a fee — or a “community benefit assessment”, if you will — for a firm to have the right to enlist non-profits in Manteca to sell their fireworks within city limits.
Playing with numbers for a second, if eight booths supposedly “gross” $250,000 on the retail side of the equation before costs other than fireworks are taken out, rest assured the fireworks firms are likely grossing at least double to triple that amount.
Let’s say it is $750,000.
A 10 percent “community benefit assessment’ would send $75,000 to the general fund to help pay for day-to-day municipal services.
If one firm opted not to pay and one did, they would improve the bottom line of the firm that pays the assessment.
But what if both firms say no and instead relied on Manteca buyers to go to Ripon, Lathrop, and elsewhere to buy legal fireworks that would then be brought back to Manteca and used.
Singh would enlist other elected leaders in nearby jurisdictions to do the same in order to get people that live in all communities a fair shake when it comes to the profits fireworks generate and also create public safety issues that taxpayers have to cover.
Right now, an argument can be made that Manteca is allowing the community to channel a firefight in Kabul for up to five days a year in exchange for non-profits earning funds,
Now, 18 years later, the community appears to be benefitting less from the sale of safe and sane fireworks while dealing with all of the ancillary problems while TNT and Phantom are raking in the dough.
This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
