Lafourche council relaxes laws on sale of poppers

Fireworks vendors will be permitted to set up shop as close as 75 feet to homes, schools and churches after the Lafourche Parish Council opted to relax its restrictions regulating the sale of celebratory explosives.

Councilman John Arnold, who proposed the ordinance reducing the buffer zone from 300 feet, touted a federal agency’s 1983 test that found stored consumer fireworks will burn, not explode, if engulfed in flames.

“I’m all about economic development for the parish,” said Arnold, who added that the lightened restrictions would prevent some vendors from folding their tents.

Affected fireworks are those of the 1.4G variety, the formal name for consumer fireworks. The new parish law “mimics” state law and is thus no more endangering, Arnold stressed. It passed 6-3 with Councilmen Aaron Caillouet, Jerry LaFont and Daniel Lorraine in opposition.

The change comes after months of consideration stemming from LaFont’s complaint that Lafourche Parish fireworks vendors were operating illegally within the 300-foot requirement. Earlier this year he urged the administration to vigorously enforce the buffer zone and led the initiative to ramp up permit fees for nonresidents. The fee was set at $800, the state-allowed maximum.

“It was targeted to put me out of business,” said Edwin Pearson, whose headquarters for Pearson Fireworks is in Slidell. “I know I was targeted.”

LaFont denied singling out any vendor.

“It’s just when they have laws on the books, I think people should follow them,” he said. “I didn’t even know the guy. But if you’re going to open up, follow the laws.”

Last week, in a second ordinance, the council defined a resident as any person who has lived in the state for one year, exempting Pearson and others – including some domiciled in Terrebonne Parish – from the high fees. Of the 37 fireworks permits issued in 2012, six went to two owners living outside of Louisiana.

Retailers will also need to secure a development permit, at $200 per year, in addition to the retail license – $100 for residents and $800 for nonresidents.

This ordinance also passed 6-3, with Councilmen Michael Delatte, Philip Gouaux and LaFont opposed.

Pearson operates four fireworks tents in Lafourche Parish. One, located near MidSouth Bank in Larose, was inside the previously held buffer zone and catalyzed debate about the parish’s fireworks ordinances.

Pearson said his tent had been located in the same spot for 18 years and that if the 300-foot limit were enforced, he would have to shut down the location. To hike the fees for out-of-parish retailers would have also been debilitating. One of the bank’s supervisors told the council the tent takes up too much of its parking spot and could provide cover for a robbery.

The debate over fees – and the initial hike for people who live outside the parish – was portrayed as another council affront to parish outsiders, coming less than a year after parish voters ousted the parish administrator who lived in neighboring Assumption Parish.

“I don’t think the people of Lafourche Parish want to say if you don’t live in this parish, you can’t open a business here,” said Pearson, adding he pays an average of $9,000 in local sales taxes to the parish each year.

LaFont said his rationale was that the stands’ ultimate profits go to Pearson, who spends his money outside of the parish borders.

“If you cross the parish lines, sometimes you have to pay more taxes,” the councilman said.

The ironically named Louisiana Fireworks, which lists a business address in Pittsburg, Kan., and TNT Fireworks, which lists a base in Florence, Ala., will be impacted by the Louisiana requirement. Louisiana Fireworks operates five stands – in Des Allemands, Houma, Thibodaux, Mathews and Larose – and TNT Fireworks owns one in Galliano.

It remains illegal to explode or ignite fireworks within 1,000 feet of churches, hospitals, asylums, public schools or within 75 feet of where fireworks are stored or sold. A 300-foot stand buffer zone for stands also remains in effect around gas stations and storages of fuel tanks.

Fireworks permits last one year, beginning and ending in the mid-March. The sale and discharge of pyrotechnics, however, is only allowed from June 25 through July 5 and Dec. 15 through Jan. 1 of each year.

Parish president resignation request defused

After weeks of hype, the council’s resolution that would have asked Parish President Charlotte Randolph to relieve herself of the position due to an alleged ethical violation was heard but not voted on.

Councilmen Jerry Jones, Jerry LaFont and Daniel Lorraine, all of whom frequently align themselves against the parish president, co-sponsored the resolution. In the event it would have passed, the measure would have been forceless.

The Ethics Adjudicatory Board said Randolph violated the state’s code of ethics when she rented her Grand Isle camp to BP after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon well explosion and after BP had paid Lafourche Parish $1 million to help offset spill-related costs.

Jones and Lorraine said they sponsored the resolution to hold Randolph accountable.

Randolph was ordered to pay the $50,000 she received through the lease agreement and $10,000 in fines to the Board of Ethics. Ethics laws are written to prevent the appearance of impropriety, so a violation of the ethics code does not always equate to criminal misconduct.

Randolph has since appealed for a rehearing through the EAB. Her attorneys contend the money was a donation, not a financial contract, and that Randolph’s fines were unprecedented.

Councilmen John Arnold, Michael Delatte and Joe Fertitta walked out of the room after making remarks during debate on the resolution.

Randolph is “one of the best parish presidents this parish has seen in some time,” Arnold said. “She does one hell of a job.”

Delatte and Fertitta each said Randolph should be afforded the due process of her appeal. “We are not elected to be judge and jury,” Delatte said.

Although the resolution’s supporters were silent during debate, a degree of rancor remained despite its failure.

“Everybody should be held accountable for what they do,” Lorraine said after the meeting when asked repeatedly what he had hoped to accomplish with the resolution. “We’ll be back.”

LaFont, who pulled his sponsorship of the resolution after the brief discussion, said he would not lead another attempt to shame the parish president. “I’m not going to sponsor it” if the issue is readdressed, he said.

Randolph declined to comment during and after the meeting.

The Lafourche Parish Council relaxed its regulations regarding a buffer zone between fireworks stands and homes, churches, banks and schools from 300 to 75 feet at its last meeting.

FILE PHOTO