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Adelanto council approves direction to pay half of fireworks booth proceeds to youth football group; staff to verify accounting
Summary
Council agreed to honor the prior arrangement to give 50% of the city's fireworks booth proceeds to the group that staffed the booth (Adelanto/Warriors), directing staff to confirm the final accounting before payment. The decision prompted questions about nonprofits' addresses, vetting and returned inventory in the financial report.
The Adelanto City Council directed staff Sept. 25 to pay half of this year's fireworks booth proceeds to the youth organization that staffed the city'run booth, and asked staff to confirm and correct the underlying accounting before issuing payment.
City staff presented two financial reports for the fireworks booth (2023 and 2024) and said the booth generated $30,673.59 in proceeds for the most recent year. "The direction originally was to give half the amount that we had earned," a finance staffer said; the mayor then proposed paying $15,000 to the group and asked staff to proceed after a short accounting review.
Councilor Mesa and others explained the Adelanto Warriors (formerly registered using a Victorville address) worked the city'operated booth and that the prearranged exchange for operating the booth was 50 percent of net proceeds. Some residents raised concerns in public comment about the organization's recent name and address change and urged transparency. Councilmembers said the vendor/booth arrangement required the organization to be vetted before operating the city's booth and asked staff to confirm that vetting occurred.
Council also flagged irregularities on the submitted financial report: council members requested clarification on a roughly $32,000 variance between gross sales and amounts shown as "paid to vendor," noting the form's categories and labels appear to be incorrect. Finance staff and the fireworks vendor (TNT) were directed to reconcile returned product, sales tax remittances and net proceeds and to report corrected figures to the council. "We'll be right after this meeting, we'll be on it," the city manager said.
The mayor and a majority of the council supported approving the city's 50 percent share for the organization once staff confirms the corrected net amount; councilmembers also asked staff to check that groups given city funds show adequate service to Adelanto residents in future allocations.
