ORDER-2018-164 : Resolution Supporting an Alcohol Advertisement-Free Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)

Transcript (~18 min @ 9:51)

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▶ 9:47 Michael P. Zwirko: back on the table for a hearing set on May 21st 2018 at 8 p.m. move on to new

▶ 9:53 Speaker 2: business order 2018 dash 164 resolution supporting an alcohol advertisement free Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is there a media consideration

▶ 10:07 Francis X. Wright Jr.: for this order for media consideration media consideration has been sought by

▶ 10:13 Michael P. Zwirko: alderman Rita is there an objection to that hearing none may proceed alderman

▶ 10:16 Francis X. Wright Jr.: right if I may this is as the orders title says a resolution supporting an alcohol advertisement free ban banned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation authority the order reads as follows whereas a large number of students in Massachusetts rely upon the MBTA to commute to and from school and other activities and whereas in 2009 alcohol advertisements on the MBTA subway cars promoted alcohol to 54.1 percent of the student passengers in Boston on an average daily weekday and whereas early exposure to alcohol advertisement contributes to positive attitudes and perceptions about alcohol use and youth and predicts future intentions to drink and likelihood of underage drinking and whereas the restrictions under current MBTA advertising guidelines have the potential to increase higher risk youth exposure to alcohol advertising and whereas banning alcohol advertisement would be a highly effective method to reduce youth drinking resulting in 7609 fewer deaths and 16.4 percent drop in alcohol related life years lost and whereas the healthy choice should not be the difficult choice should not be this difficult choice for massachusetts youth be it resolved that we the mayor and members of this board of aldermen support guidelines that prohibit alcohol advertising on mbta property reducing the number of underage youth exposed to alcohol across the state and decreasing the financial burden placed on the commonwealth's residency created by youth alcohol abuse i would just like to add that a few of us were around back in 2009 when the mbta in the middle of the night effectively came along and posted billboards at cedar parks train station and not long after those went up alcohol advertisements went on them at the time representative broder was a member of this board and he initiated and i worked along with him he is an at-large alderman and myself as the ward alderman to challenge that and we got the mayor on board and the law department on board and we challenged them in court and it went all the way to the supreme judicial court and the supreme judicial court found that the revenue raising from advertising was a core function of the mbta which i don't see to this day but and therefore they could advertise at these train stations

▶ 13:09 Francis X. Wright Jr.: and at that point we asked them to voluntarily remove the alcohol advertising which they did to their much to their credit but now it appears that they want to perhaps take a step back on this so I'd like to see I'll send a message to them saying we prefer to keep things as they are because that route through Cedar Park and and who's to say if advertising won't come along at Wyoming and and Franklin Street as well and those Highlands but right now where they have advertising that's a route taken by many of the students who go to the middle school in the high school from Ward three and they walk along and travel down that route over those tracks and down Tremont Street to the school so I would like to see us keep it as is if they're going to have advertising it not

▶ 14:15 Speaker 7: include alcohol second the motion for passage Alderman Wright not only read

▶ 14:22 Michael P. Zwirko: the resolution but also moved that this be recommended for passage it was seconded by Alderman Mortimer on further discussion any other alderman Manisha

▶ 14:34 Manisha Bewtra: ultimate future Thank You chairman president I'm sorry so my question is on the second to last whereas where it says banning alcohol advertisement would be a highly effective method to reduce youth drinking resulting in seven thousand six hundred and nine fewer deaths and a sixteen point four percent drop in alcohol related life years lost to me this reads as though the advertisement itself will reduce will result in fewer I mean that specific number of fewer deaths and life years lost which seems pretty speculative to claim and my and I my I suspect that what was intended is that youth drinking is the cause or of that number of deaths and life years lost so my suggestion would be could we changed the wording to say after drinking comma to which results in X

▶ 15:38 Manisha Bewtra: number of deaths annually and sixteen point four percent percent drop in alcohol life your related life years lost annually something to that effect that would make it more clear that that's what was intended in my understanding that correctly well at this point there is a motion on the

▶ 15:55 Michael P. Zwirko: floor so in order to amend you would need to make a motion to amend well it would the motion on the floor would have to be withdrawn could you just read read what the proposed change that you had was it just the insertion of a comma no

▶ 16:16 Manisha Bewtra: um I will reread what I'm proposing is that what you're asking yes please whereas banning alcohol advertisement would be a highly effective method to reduce youth drinking which results in seven thousand six hundred and nine

▶ 16:40 Manisha Bewtra: fewer deaths annually sorry I don't know if that actually makes it more clear the way I just said it which results in seven thousand six hundred and nine fewer deaths annually annually and a sixteen point four percent drop in alcohol related life years lost annually and then the rest has is so just in changing resulting to maybe which is known to result in seven thousand six

▶ 17:07 Manisha Bewtra: hundred and nine fewer deaths and a blah blah blah and then annually right before the Senate semi-colon thank you Alderman Dutra any other

▶ 17:29 Monica C. Medeiros: Alderman on discussion Alderman Medeiros thank you you know I think certainly I support the sentiment of this resolution I I see where Alderman Bewtra is coming from and it it does sort of I guess maybe to the maker of the order just wondering where that that figure comes from the seven thousand six hundred and fewer deaths and 16.4 percent drop in alcohol related life years lost motion

▶ 17:57 Peter D. Mortimer: to suspend the rules that we may hear from our director of health Ruth clay

▶ 18:04 Michael P. Zwirko: who's here in the chambers with us there is a motion currently on the floor

▶ 18:06 Peter D. Mortimer: excuse me I would draw that motion it was out of order thank you mr. president although point of order isn't a motion to suspend always in order through the

▶ 18:18 Monica C. Medeiros: president Alderman Medeiros yes that's a question through the president to the maker of the order where did the figures come from Alderman Wright would you care

▶ 18:28 Francis X. Wright Jr.: to respond to Alderman Medeiros Thank You mr. president I would prefer to allow the health director to come forward and then you know my figures came from information I received through the health department and I would like to defer to Ruth clay mr. president with we've got a motion to suspend the rules

▶ 18:52 Francis X. Wright Jr.: I think as alderman Mortimer points out it's it carries throughout the meeting

▶ 19:00 Peter D. Mortimer: yeah I think that's an interceding motion on a point of order all right

▶ 19:03 Michael P. Zwirko: thank you the chair grants the motion for suspension of the rules that has been made by alderman Mortimer it's been seconded by alderman Rita all in favor suspending the rules hi any opposed hearing none the rules are suspended with the health director please come up to the table and shed some light on the

▶ 19:29 Speaker 2: statistics for us please please please so I'm gonna do this without my glasses so I wanted to introduce Liz Parsons she's our regional substance prevention coordinator and specifically works on underage drinking so I understand where you're coming from this this is language that is being requested to be adopted across all of the MT MBTA communities it's not you know something we specifically wrote but the answer to your question is that it's actually from a study from the American Journal of studies on alcohol thank you American Journeys studies on alcohol in 2006 and actually it's cited in really really really small print did you guys get this or did you only got that oh no wonder okay so I can make a copy of this for you which was the original request for the proclamation and our resolution and at the bottom there's about eight foot notes with studies footnoted that wasn't included obviously in your resolution but we can give those to you so if you wanted to look at the research that came up with the numbers so is the question about where the numbers thank you yes no So is it saying that reducing or banning alcohol advertisement has been proven to result in this many fewer deaths? Yes. Reducing exposure of alcohol ads to youth has been shown to reduce the use of alcohol among youth. Which then, when they do statistically, they come out with how many of the percentage translates into bodies. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 21:26 Speaker 1: Was there another question you had, Alderman DeRose? Alderman Butcher for the second time.

▶ 21:31 Manisha Bewtra: Thank you. So with this, so this 7,609 fewer deaths, is that annually and is that nationwide? Annually in the United States. OK. Sort of to my earlier point, I just feel like the language just needs some slight modifications, because it implies to me that MBTA advertisement, there's like cause and effect. And so I think just a slight change in the language maybe to suggest, my screen keeps turning off,

▶ 22:06 Speaker 2: rather than resulting in saying which is known to cause. Well, it does say banning alcohol advertisement. It doesn't say on the T, it just says banning alcohol advertisement in general reduces the risk.

▶ 22:26 Manisha Bewtra: I guess my issue is that the risk and the actual cause of death is not, I mean, I understand that the risk is increased by exposure to advertisement, but it just seems like there's a disconnect to me that not all of those deaths are caused by increased advertisement. And then also there's the sort of like absence of units in terms of annually, as well as like contextualizing as this being a well we should have given you the study that went along with it which I think would have answered your questions but I don't have that printed out here with the study my issue is with adopting a resolution with this language as is which just feels like it's missing that information like it feels like it should stand on its own and right now that sentence to me does

▶ 23:23 Speaker 1: not stand on its own mr. president Alderman Wright I'm a bottom line kind

▶ 23:28 Francis X. Wright Jr.: guy all right bottom line is i don't want to see alcohol advertising at cedar park again okay so

▶ 23:38 Francis X. Wright Jr.: if it'll make people happy and it'll make me happy let's just change it to whereas banning alcohol advertisement would be a highly effective method to reduce youth drinking period we don't need

▶ 23:46 Francis X. Wright Jr.: statistics if there's people going to question those statistics i just don't want to see fifth graders walking past budweiser advertising or amsdale light that was there you know 10 years ago so um i'm fine with moving i will withdraw the the my motion and if the second is withdrawn we can amend it my goal tonight is to send a message to the t that we would highly prefer that we maintain the status quo keep the alcohol advertising out of Cedar Park and off the route that traveled by our school children so I ultimate ultimate

▶ 24:32 Michael P. Zwirko: right withdraws his motion and in seeking to do so we would need alderman Mortimer excuse me to withdraw his second I will withdraw my second to

▶ 24:41 Peter D. Mortimer: clear the way for alderman Rita to make that simplifying amendment which I think

▶ 24:51 Michael P. Zwirko: should get us to the bottom line thank you Alderman Mortimer so Alderman Wright

▶ 24:59 Francis X. Wright Jr.: moves to amend the resolution on the right the second the last whereas to read going going forward read whereas banning alcohol advertisement would be a highly effective method to reduce youth drinking semicolon and and I will

▶ 25:17 Michael P. Zwirko: second that motion to amend on for the discussion of the amendment hearing none all in favor of the motion to amend aye opposed none Alderman Wright I will move

▶ 25:29 Peter D. Mortimer: for passage of the resolution second for passage of the resolution as amended

▶ 25:32 Michael P. Zwirko: Alderman Wright makes a motion for passage for the resolution as amended

▶ 25:39 Speaker 1: seconded by Alderman Mortimer further discussion Alderman Mortimer I agree

▶ 25:42 Peter D. Mortimer: with Alderman Wright I like this resolution I was here back in the day when Representative Broda was a alderman at large, and the same thing was going on. The T needs money, the service they provide. We have to fight with them every year to keep our three stations in Melrose open, even though we give them boatloads of money. Not satisfied with how they run their ship, but the way to get more money for their poorly performing operation is not to shove advertising, alcohol advertising, in the face of our kids. It's bad enough. Even regular advertising is a blight on the community. But you check out any ghetto in the United States, any slum, and one of the things they have across, and they're all at eye level, too. They're not up at the height of the clock or the height of these windows. They put them at the top of these windows. They put it all right at eye level, cigarette ads and alcohol ads. And it's in every ghetto that you go to, and there's all kinds of problems because of it. The studies bear it out, but all you have to do is live in America to realize what's going on. And this isn't a way for them to increase their revenue. They need to work on cutting the cost from the inside. So I agree with what Alderman Wright said, and I appreciate him bringing this forward. We fought this battle. We do the same thing every year with the lottery, too. They keep trying to sneak in the lotto games on us and hope we're not looking. They send us a letter, and it's like one of those time-life magazines. You can have the first one free, but if you don't send them, call them and say, I'm canceling, the lottery pulls the same nonsense with us every year. So I'm four square in favor of this thing. Thank you very much.

▶ 27:28 Speaker 1: Thank you, Alderman Mortimer. Any further discussion? Any aldermen? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Resolution passes as amended.

▶ 27:39 Speaker 2: next order order 2018 dash 165 a resolution honoring Mary Rita O'Shea and her nearly 40 years of service to the city of Melrose mr. president like to