Residents and nonprofits clash over safe-and-sane fireworks as council agrees to let voters decide

At the study session portion of the June 23 San Bruno meeting, dozens of residents and nonprofit representatives testified about the city's safe-and-sane fireworks program: several organizations said booth sales are their primary or largest annual fundraiser and warned that removing the program would end services for veterans and youth sports, while other speakers cited public-safety, wildfire risk, animal welfare and trauma-related harms as reasons to ban sales and use.

American Legion and longtime volunteer speakers argued that booth proceeds fund operating expenses and community programs and that a ban would push demand toward illegal fireworks. "Without fireworks the American Legion is going to be out of business," one speaker said. Representatives for permittees and vendors asked staff to clarify the city's accounting and disputed some staff estimates of permittee payments and the net fiscal effect on the city.

Opposing commentators — including a wildlife rehabilitator and a mental-health clinician — urged the council to allow voters to revisit the 2005 initiative that permitted safe-and-sane sales. Speakers cited noisy fireworks that cause lost pets, wildlife deaths and retraumatization for veterans and trauma survivors.

City staff warned that even if sales were discontinued the city would still be responsible for enforcement against illegal fireworks, cleanup of debris in public spaces and public education; the police and fire chiefs described enforcement tactics (plainclothes officers, drones, overtime patrols) and repeated that illegal fireworks remain subject to a $1,000 administrative citation.

After public comment the council voted to refer the question to voters for November 2026 and asked staff to provide a fiscal-impact analysis that details how permit revenues (and any payouts to nonprofits) flow, and how enforcement and cleanup costs would be affected by policy change.

Representative quote: "If we lose this [fundraising], these programs are going to be gone," said a sports-program volunteer. The council directed staff to prepare ballot language and a financial analysis ahead of the county's early-August deadline.

What to watch: Fiscal-impact and stakeholder analyses that staff promised to return with in July; how the council packages the fireworks question with other ballot items may affect voter perceptions and campaign dynamics.