Hoquiam Council gives mayor emergency fireworks ban powers

By Dan Hammock • August 12, 2021 1:30 am
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD The Hoquiam mayor, as of August 2022, will have the authority to impose an emergency consumer fireworks ban in the event of high fire danger.
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD The Hoquiam mayor, as of August 2022, will have the authority to impose an emergency consumer fireworks ban in the event of high fire danger.

After a fair amount of discussion, the Hoquiam City Council voted on Monday to give the mayor the power to ban the use of consumer fireworks when fire danger is deemed to high for safe discharge.

This is not a city-wide ban on fireworks. The ordinance passed Monday gives the mayor the authority — after consulting with “appropriate officials, which may include the chief of the Hoquiam Fire Department or the Regional Fire Authority and the chief of the Hoquiam Police Department, and obtaining input from the National Weather Service, the state Department of Natural Resources, the state Fire Marshall, and other appropriate agencies” — to ban the use of consumer fireworks during times of extreme fire danger.

Council member Dave Hinchen expressed some concern about a mayor having such emergency powers.

“I just want you to realize the power that you’ll have with making this judgement,” he said. “I said it before, I trust your (Mayor Ben Winkelman’s) judgement. I don’t know if I will trust the next mayor the same way.”

Winkelman said the ordinance gave the mayor “a considerable amount of discretion” in making such a decision, as the cities of Elma and Cosmopolis did this summer — those cities already had municipal code regarding consumer fireworks during extreme fire danger. In Cosmopolis, the decision falls to the mayor; in Elma, to the fire or police chief.

“Ultimately it doesn’t say what would happen, by ordinance, if all of those individuals or organizations (listed in the Hoquiam ordinance) said they were going to ban fireworks, that the mayor had to ban fireworks, and the opposite is true as well,” said Winkelman.

Winkelman said he understood Hinchen’s concerns “that there may be a mayor some day that may or may not like fireworks and just bans them every year.” He added that the ordinance, per state law, won’t take effect for a year, so the Hoquiam mayor will have no such powers next July 4.

“I know there are people here, it’s their favorite holiday, for whatever reason, and you just need to be fair to them,” said Hinchen.

Council member Steven Puvogel said the council can, at any time, take action to remove the ordinance. In the future, if such issues arise as Hinchen described, the council could remove such emergency powers if it feels the mayor is misusing them. “If you have a mayor that does it every year even though it’s pouring the Council absolutely has recourse,” he said.

In the end, the ordinance was passed unanimously by the 11 council members present.