Jesus Angel Sanchez (left) and his brother, Rafael, struggle to lug a box of fireworks to their family car from a fireworks stand on Freedom Boulevard last year.

With the decision made Wednesday night to eliminate the sale and use of fireworks in Watsonville for the first time since 1975, attention turned Thursday to finding funding for the 30 nonprofit groups who will miss out on a major fundraising source.

The City Council’s 6-0 vote, however, not only banned fireworks until Fire Chief Mark Bisbee determines that the ultra-dry conditions that have contributed to three major Santa Cruz County fires in the last month have returned to normal, but also directed the formation of an ad hoc committee to explore alternative fundraising sources for affected nonprofit groups.

The committee has not been formed yet, said Assistant City Manager Marcela Tavantzis, but she did give an idea of how the committee might be composed. Tavantzis said the committee would be made up of city officials, community members and nonprofit representatives, but noted that it would not be possible for each nonprofit to have a representative, because that would make the committee too large.

Meanwhile, Tavantzis, joined by Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture CEO Jerry Beyersdorff met Thursday afternoon with representatives of the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, which has offered to help the city in dealing with the nonprofit-funding problem. According to city figures, the average financial impact to each nonprofit group of not having the fireworks sales is $6,500, although many nonprofits have claimed they usually make upwards of $10,000.

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During Wednesday’s meeting, City Manager Carlos Palacios said the Community Foundation, a nonprofit that provides grants and resources to community organizations throughout the county, had contacted him with an offer of help. Palacios said officials from the foundation volunteered to find a consultant to help with fundraising and also to try to find a person, group or agency that would help fund nonprofits involving youth.

Luis Chabolla, the foundation’s communications and education officer, said it was unclear yet what role the foundation would play.

“What will transpire and what we can or cannot do is yet to be determined,” said Chabolla, who said he would participate in Thursday’s meeting. “We definitely want to see if we can help — if that’s financial support, we don’t know.”

Tavantzis said her goals at the meeting were to gather facts and get an idea of what the foundation is interested in doing. She said she wanted to come up with a plan before doing anything else.

“At this time the city doesn’t have the capacity to be the organizer and that’s why we appreciate the Community Foundation’s offer of assistance,” she said.

Beyersdorff, who said he would be part of the ad-hoc committee, addressed the City Council during Wednesday’s emergency meeting, and argued that nonprofits will need to be creative with fundraising. He also told the council that nonprofits could make money from working at the Strawberry Festival, an event the Pajaro Valley Chamber is involved with heavily.

“When I spoke last night, I said there needs to be some creative strategies to see how these budget holes that have been created can be filled,” Beyersdorff said. “The Strawberry Festival provides an opportunity for any nonprofit to make some money, probably not as much as selling fireworks, because there are few things that make as much money selling in a booth.”

The Rudolph Monte Foundation, which raises funds for Santa Cruz County school and youth groups, is among a number of other groups to offer assistance.

For some nonprofits, the fireworks sales made up as much as 80 percent of their budget, according to representatives who spoke during the council meeting. Others who spoke promised various methods of assistance, although some nonprofit group representatives called some fundraising suggestions unrealistic.

“I feel very badly that the nonprofits are not going to get this huge chunk of money that they were counting on,” Mayor Kimberly Petersen said Thursday. “I’m really counting on those people who said they were going to help, and on the city, too.”

Wednesday’s emergency meeting started with a packed house, with the crowd even spilling over from the council chambers to the community room — also on the top floor of the Civic Plaza — where the meeting was shown on a screen. Dozens of community members took their opportunity to speak during public comment, with speakers split roughly 50-50 on their opinion. It was clear, however, prior to the actual vote where the members of the council stood, prompting most of the crowd to leave before the decision was made final.

Gary Garcia, head coach of Watsonville High School’s wrestling team, which planned to operate a fireworks booth, claimed the City Council had made its mind up prior to Wednesday’s meeting. WHS football coach Tom Sullivan also said he believed the council knew how it was going to vote, noting that there were good points for suspension of the fireworks sales.

“Yesterday’s meeting was a formality,” Garcia said. “That’s all it was.”

Petersen said that wasn’t true.

“Unfortunately, I think there will always be some people who think our minds are made up beforehand,” she said. “I know for myself, I really had no preconceived opinion about what the ruling was.”

Petersen said that she was swayed by what the fire officials had to say; others on the City Council said during their remarks at the meeting that they had to trust the experts when they said fireworks — even the state-approved fireworks sold at nonprofit stands — were too dangerous under the current conditions.

She also said that the council decided to hold a special session Wednesday to give everyone who wished a chance to speak, rather than deal with the issue during Tuesday’s regular meeting.

“I thought it was a fair process,” Watsonville High athletic director Brad Hubbard said. “I thought everybody had their say. It was an incredibly difficult issue. Clearly we are in very difficult times. Not only do we have an area that is ripe for fires, it’s (the same) all over California. If you listen to the news, the fire personnel are stretched to the limit. I think that was a major thing that came out.”

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*Photo by Tarmo Hannula*

(Published in 6/27/08 edition)

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