It was with great interest that I read of the attempt last week by some residents and Council member Shelly Kaplan to stop the sale of fireworks in Cathedral City. Mr. Kaplan had first brought up his opposition to fireworks when he was being interviewed on my radio program during his successful campaign. Also agreeing with him was his fellow rookie council member Mark Carneveale.
With a cynicism born of following Cathedral City and local politics for almost 2 decades, I figured there would be no way the council would actually ban fireworks. But I wanted to see what reason they would come up. I was sure it would define credulity as the rest of the city council would have to try and defend the ludicrous policy of allowing non-profits to sell fireworks in a desert.
After the public comments, the city council decided that since most non-profits had already counted in July 2015 sales in their budget, they would be adversely affected by a ban. That of course is patently ridiculous as they can not have any idea how much they will make off of fireworks sales. (Point of disclosure. I am a member of St. Louis Parish which participates in the fireworks sales. 2 years ago, money raised was to send kids to World Youth Day in Brazil where they would see Pope Francis. Yup, we sold fireworks to meet the Pope,)
If that wasn't bad enough, the council voted to revisit the measure May 13th and possibly put it on the ballot in November. I will wager anyone a nickel that in May that it will be either be pulled from the study session agenda or we will be lectured on how the city can't afford to pay for a ballot measure or both. Of course the only reason there is even mention of a possible citizen's vote is to provide political cover to a council to afraid t o act on such an obvious common sense measure.
Some newer members in hte community hailed last fall's elections as some sort of break through in city government. The 10 second re-appointment of John Aguilar to the city council last year and the way this matter was handled lead me to think otherwise
Steve Kelly can be heard from 4 to 6P Daily PDT on 1450 KPTR and on I Heart Radio
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