TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THRU: Jarad Hildenbrand, City Manager
FROM: Leslie Hardy, Community and Library Services Director
1. Subject
title
Lottery selection for permits to sell safe and sane fireworks.
body
2. Summary
On December 9, 2025, the Orange City Council adopted Resolution No. 11648, regarding updated rules and regulations for the number of permits, application process and lottery process to sell safe and sane fireworks pursuant to Orange Municipal Code Chapter 8.13. An eligibility pool has been created from a compiled list of qualified applicant organizations as defined in Resolution No. 11648, and a lottery drawing can now be conducted wherein presumptive permittees are chosen via random selection for continuance in the permit process.
3. Recommended Action
recommendation
Conduct a lottery via random selection process, record the results, and provide notification to presumptive permittees regarding next steps in the safe and sane fireworks sale permit process.
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4. Fiscal Impact
None.
5. Strategic Plan Goals
Goal 3: Enhance Public Communication Strategy and Quality of Life
6. Discussion and Background
On May 14, 2024, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 11542, submitting to the voters a question on whether to permit the sale, possession, and use of Safe and Sane Fireworks. Assigned the letter designation “AA” by the Orange County Registrar of Voters, Measure AA was approved in November 2024. The Council adopted Resolution No. 11597, finalizing the lottery and permit process pertinent to the sale of Safe and Sane Fireworks within the City. Subsequently, on December 9, 2025, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 11648, which rescinded and replaced Resolution 11597 and established updated procedures and changes to the Safe and Sane Fireworks Program (Attachment 1). Changes to the process were primarily related to advancing the annual program schedule, creating a two-year permit process, revising the automatic permittee organizations and updating affiliated organization language.
Staff finalized necessary application forms, created a webpage, and conducted outreach to allow interested groups to participate in the lottery process. The lottery process will determine which organizations will advance to the permit process.
The application process allowed for “Qualified Organizations” as defined in Orange Municipal Code Chapter 8.13 and Resolution No. 11648 to submit an application, which was made available electronically on the City’s website in January 2026. At the conclusion of the application period, a total of 27 applications were received and reviewed to determine eligibility for the lottery. Staff considered all requirements outlined in Section 3 of Resolution No. 11648 and determined that a total of 25 qualified organizations should be recommended for inclusion in the lottery process (Attachment 2).
Two of the applications received were determined to not be included in the lottery process. The El Modena Football Booster Club submitted an application but is not included because the organization is affiliated with El Modena High School which is automatically receiving a permit covering all of their school organizations. Two separate applications were received from organizations deemed to be affiliated with each other, one from the Orange Antlers #1475 and the other from the Orange Elks Lodge #1475. Consistent with last year’s process and Resolution 11648, these organizations were given the opportunity to combine their applications into a single cooperative entry in-lieu of both applications being disqualified - which was accepted by both organizations.
A maximum number of twelve permits can be issued to Qualified Organizations, nine being issued to Qualified Organizations selected randomly from an eligible pool of lottery entrants and the remaining three permits being designated for El Modena High School, Orange High School, and Richland Continuation High School. Staff coordinated with the administrations of each High School to determine interest in pursuing a permit for the sale of Safe and Sane Fireworks. All of the High Schools indicated they would pursue a permit as allotted. It should be noted that the nine randomly selected organizations will be allotted a permit for the current and following (two-year) program years, then will become ineligible to participate in the process for the following two program years thereafter (two years on, two years off). The next lottery process would therefore be conducted in 2028.
Per Resolution No. 11648, it is recommended that an additional number of applicants be selected randomly to serve as “alternates” in the event that one or more of the initial nine selected applicants fails to obtain a permit. As such, it is recommended that six alternates be selected. These additional applicants shall be considered for a permit in the order they were drawn.
Applicants selected in the lottery will be contacted by the Orange Fire Department to begin the process to secure all necessary approvals to receive their permit for 2026 (Phase II).
7. ATTACHMENTS
• Attachment 1 - Resolution No. 11648
• Attachment 2 - List of Qualified Organizations