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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTobacco/Alcohol Collaborative - 6/9/201610/13/2016 11:22 5083242544 FALL RIVER HEALTH PAGE 01/03 Western Bristol County & Foxborough Tobacco & Alcohol Prevention Collaborative One Government Center, 4th fl. Fall River, AL4 02722 Office: 508 324 2428 Cell: 774 488 9341 Fax: 508 824 2429 Serving Boards of Health in Attleboro f N. Attleboro Berkley 171ghtou Fall River Foxborough Nlaz�a£leld Norton . Rehoboth Seekonk Somerset • Swansea Taunton Westport Marilyn Edge, Director tmail: WBriatolTobaccoAlcoholf&email.corq FAX COVER SIWET From: Marilyn Edge, Director No. of pages including cover s ;ertilicnt0 i... p.,, ...............A.wy........,...__....... j ertifitate1 Completion Conflictof Interest barab 3ECROUx Tobacco Inspector Board of Health Tobacco Control bao eomPletO toe conflict of 3fnterat Iaw . online training proorant on 10/3/2016 Cluso Cortiftate Windo,n of 1 £0/£0 39Vd HiIV3H d311Ia TIVJ 10/3/2016 11:28 AM PVSZPZ6809 ZZ:TT 9TOZ/£T/0T 10/13/2016 11:22 5083242544 FALL RIVER HEALTH PACE 02/03 .N A � O 0 y H f-i R October 11, 2016 RECEIVED TOWN CLERKS OFFICE 2014 OCl 13 A 9: 55 MANUIELD MASSA(1NI SF fT Marilyn Edge Tobacco Control Coordinator West Bristol Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention Collaborative One Government Center, 4t" floor Fall River, MA 02722 Dear Marilyn, Town of Mansfield 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MaiBadmi-efts 02048 Health Department Amy Donovan -Palmer; Health Agent At its October 6, 2016, meeting the Board of Health voted to appoint Sarah Leroux as Health Agent for Tobacco Control, with no compensation from the Town of Mansfield. The appointment shall be for duration of the West Bristol Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention Collaborative Memorandum of Agreement which ends on June 30, 2017, or early should the Board of Health decline to continue participation. Please present this letter to the Town Clerk to be sworn in. We look forward to continuing our participation in the program. Yours truly, Amy Donb an -Palmer, Health Agent C: Town Clerk Phone (508)261-7366 Fax (508)261-7425 Ei)railadpalmei@nmansfieldsna.eor)r J & . S � % 6 2 � w e \. w % t § FPi_ rti:. ,'i. Western Bristol County & Foxborough Tobacco & Alcohol Prevention Collaborative One Government Center, 4th fl. Fall River, MA 02722 Office: 508 324 2423 Cell: 774 488 9341 Fax: 508 324 2429 Serving Boards of Health in Attleboro N. Attleboro Berkley Dighton Fall River Foxborough Mansfield Norton Seekonk Somerset Swansea Taunton Westport Marilyn Edge, Director Email: WBristolTobaccoAlcohol@gmail.com To: Collaborative Health Departments From: Marilyn Edge, Health Dept. Re: 2016 State Ethics Commission Certificate Date: October 4, 2016 y k_ r Il `d x e CT 016 2016 Attached please find the Certificates of Completion of the Conflict of Interest Law for myself and Inspector Sarah LeRoux. If there is anything further you may need please contact me. Thank you. Certificate hUp://www.muniprog.etli.state.ma.us/page554968.litiiiI Certificate of Completion $ elon Conflict of Interest Law Oarab XeRoux Tobacco Inspector Board of Health Tobacco Control bao completeb the (Conflict of 3titereot 3LaW online training program on 10/3/2016 v 1 OCT 0'6 2016 I of 1 10/3/2016 1128 AM w »!»Sim S. I eg < w /� �) \\ \ \ A! 9 !jo v } \� �) " k } ) r- � \ q � Q a q � # � � 2 � % � 2 2; g� S 2 . � \ u The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services Department of Public Health Western Reqional Health Office 23 Service Center Rd., Northampton, MA 01060 413-586-7525 1800-769-9991 (TTY) 1413-784-1037 (FAX) CHARLES O. BAKER Governor KARYN E. POLITO Lieutenant Governor January 20, 2016 Mansfield Board of Health Attn: Scott Leite Dear Mr. Leite and members of the Mansfield Board of Health, MARYLOU SUDDERS Secretary MONICA BHAREL, MD, MPH Commissioner Tel: 617-624-6000 w .mass.govldph My name is Christy Fedor. I am the Director of the Massachusetts FDA Tobacco Enforcement Program, which is a part of the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. You are receiving this letter because your MTCP-funded board of health program is one of four FDA pilot programs across the state. As a result, your community has the opportunity to benefit from issuing local fines for inspections conducted by the FDA. This increased potential for enforcement can have a very positive impact on reducing the rate of illegal sales to minors in your community. In order to take part in the pilot program, your Boards of Health needs to be willing to fine retailers based on the inspections that are completed by our team of FDA inspectors. The FDA Tobacco Enforcement Program completes approximately 8,500 inspections at tobacco retailers across the state every year, including over 6,300 compliance checks with youth. FDA compliance checks use a protocol that is in -line with those used by individual Massachusetts cities and towns. Each and every permitted tobacco retailer in Massachusetts receives an FDA inspection at least once per calendar year. The FDA program does not divulge when they are doing compliance checks or which local retailers they will visit. Within three business days of a potential violation, the FDA will notify that retailer by mail. Outside of the pilot program, the FDA does not notify the municipality of the potential violation, however the compliance check results will be posted on the FDA website, generally within eight to ten weeks of the sale. Due to a lack of local authority and the extended period of time it takes for the FDA website posting to occur, municipalities have not been able to also penalize on these FDA compliance checks. In place of a penalty, some cities and towns, upon receiving FDA notification, will ask the violating retailer to attend a board of health meeting to explain how the tobacco sale to a minor happened and what they intend to do to rectify the problem to avoid future illegal sales. A number of cities and towns have inquired as to how to utilize their local penalty structure against a retailer caught in an FDA compliance check. The FDA pilot project was established for this purpose. The participating cities and towns deputize the FDA compliance officer to complete compliance checks. With proper deputization, that FDA compliance officer can immediately notify the board of health of FDA violations by completing an MTCP compliance check form and therefore record a failed compliance check as both an FDA offense and a local offense. The legal basis for the pilot program is attached on page 3 of this letter. Prior to actively using this format, municipalities should inform their tobacco sales permittees that they will be subject to two sets of penalties if they sell tobacco products to minors. As to procedure, the FDA will continue to use their protocol and the participating municipality shall use their protocol. If a retailer wishes to appeal the penalty, appeal procedures for each are separate and can be found on the FDA website and within the local measure. To provide you with additional context, to complete the FDA inspections, we have a team of eight individuals, of which only two are full time FDA inspectors. The remaining six inspectors work on a part-time basis between 15-30 hours per week. The FDA inspectors potentially work in all 351 cities and towns across Massachusetts. All 8 of our inspectors have done work in your cities and towns. Some of those inspectors come from as far as North Adams to complete FDA inspections in the southeast. Due to the size of FDA territories and scheduling difficulties, it is impossible for FDA inspectors to be present to be appointed and/or sworn in by the boards of health in individual cities and towns. The options that have been identified to deal with this issue are as follows: 1. Individual deputization but no physical presence needed (providing resume and/or FDA commission is sufficient) 2. Deputizing a 'class" of inspectors instead of by name 3. Editing the existing sales regulation to include FDA inspectors (See attachment on pg 3) It is our hope that your board of health will consider adopting one of the three approaches above. Inclusion of your community in the FDA Pilot Program will help us to achieve our mutual goal of reducing illegal sales to minors. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. My email is Christ..f�astate.ma.us and my phone number is (413) 586-7525. Thank you, Christy Fedor Director, Massachusetts FDA Tobacco Enforcement Program Additional Information Sample edit to the Enforcement section of a current sales regulation: S. Enforcement: Enforcement of this regulation shall be by the [city/town] Board of Health or its designated agent(s), including, but not limited to, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioned Officers with a current commission under the FDA Tobacco Enforcement Contract with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Legal Basis for Pilot Program: The FDA law does not preempt or otherwise block boards of health from enforcing their tobacco regulations. In authorizing the FDA to regulate tobacco under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, Congress stated '[n] othing in this chapter, shall ... limit the authority ... any state or political subdivision of a state to enact, adopt, promulgate, and enforce any law, rule, regulation ... for the sale, distribution, possession ... of tobacco. (21 USC sec. 917(a)1). Therefore, if a board of health has evidence of a violation of its regulation, it is well within its scope of legal authority to act. In this pilot program, a deputized agent of the board of health provides such evidence. The fact that this person is also collecting evidence of FDA violations makes no difference. He or she has full authority to act in both capacities. Someone might argue that double jeopardy blocks this dual enforcement. That claim is wrong. Double jeopardy blocks multiple prosecutions against someone by one sovereign government. Since our constitutional system interprets our federal, state and local governments as different sovereign governments, each has a chance to pursue prosecutions. There are several examples of such multiple prosecutions when it comes to criminal matters. In the civil context, the tobacco industry itself was sued under the civil laws of both the state and federal governments for the exact same behavior, deceiving the public about the harm caused by tobacco use. Scott Leite From: Scott Leite Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 1:53 PM To: 'Fedor, Christy (DPH)' Subject: RE: FDA Pilot Program Good afternoon Christy, I am sure the Mansfield Board of Health will give careful thought to your offer regarding the FDA pilot program. I do, however have a number of questions and would like more information, which I am sure they will take into consideration in their decision. 1. Is this directed to the Town of Mansfield or all members of the Western Bristol County and Foxborough Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention Collaborative? 2. If directed only to the Town of Mansfield, how and why was Mansfield chosen? 3. Who are the other three pilot program communities? 4. How is the FDA associated with this pilot program and does it expressly approve of it? 5. What is the benefit of participating, aside from the obvious violation revenue? 6. When we learn of a violation by monitoring the FDA website, the violating retailer is asked to attend a Board of Health meeting to discuss remediation of the problem. How would this change by taking part in the pilot program? 7. is "deputization" of a board of health agent or "class of inspectors" recognized and legal method of code enforcement within the Commonwealth? If so please provide the citation within the Massachusetts General Law and a copy of MADPH legal counsel's opinion and any other documents regarding "deputization". 8. It is my understanding that when a person represents the Town of Mansfield, the Town becomes responsible for them and their actions (i.e. wages, benefits, workman's compensations insurance, illegal and harmful activities). Please provide MADPH legal counsel's opinion and any other documents regarding this matter. 9. What are the requirements to become a FDA Commissioned Officer under the FDA Tobacco Enforcement Contract? Thank you for your time and assistance. Upon receiving your response, I will present this to the Board of Health and Town Counsel for consideration. Yours truly, Scott Scott Lelte, Health Agent 6 Park Row Mansfield, MA O2O48 508-261-7366 From: Fedor, Christy. (DPH)[mailto:christy.fedorc&state.ma.usI Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 11:51 AM To: Scott Leite Cc: Marilyn Edge Subject: FDA Pilot Program Dear Mr. Leite, I have attached a letter to this email which explains how your community could benefit from participation in the Massachusetts FDA/BOH Pilot Program. The purpose of this pilot is to help the Massachusetts FDA Tobacco Enforcement Program and the boards of health to achieve our mutual goal of reducing illegal sales to minors. Please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you, Christy Fedor Christy L. Fedor Youth Access and FDA Program Coordinator Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program 23 Service Center Northampton, MA 01060 (413)586-7525 or (800)445-1255 Ext. 3166 Christy.Fedor@ state, ma. us blog: http://publichealth.blog.state.ma.us Scott Leite From: Marilyn Edge <wbristoltobaccoalcohol@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, August 24, 2015 3:17 PM To: Alan Perry; Beth Hallal; Bob Davis; Christian Zahner IV; Denise Curzake, Heather Gallant; Henry Vaillancourt; Jayne Gesner; Joe Carvalho; Nancy Paquet; Pauline Clifford; Rosilyn Grassie; Scott Leite Subject: New FDA Inspector, Pam Pollock Hi All, I have a new FDA Inspector working through my program as a tobacco agent. I would appreciate it if you could appoint her as an agent of your Boards. Her name is Pam Pollock, 660 Scraggy Neck Rd., P.O. Box 629, Cataumet, MA 02534-0629. If you have any questions please contact me. Thanks. Marilyn Edge Western Bristol County & Foxborough Tobacco & Alcohol Prevention One Government Center, 4th fl Fall River, MA 02722 Office: 508-324-2423 Cell: 774-488-9341 Fax:508-324-2429 September 28, 2011 Marilyn Edge Tobacco Control Coordinator West Bristol Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention Collaborative One Government Center, 4°i floor Fall River, MA 02722 Dear Marilyn, At its September 15, 2011 meeting the Board of Health voted to appoint you as Health Agent for Tobacco Control, with no compensation from the Town of Mansfield. The appointment shall be for duration of the West Bristol Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention Collaborative Memorandum of Agreement which ends on June 30, 2014 or early should the Board of Health decline to continue participation. Please present this letter to the Town Clerk to be sworn in. We look forward to participating in the program. Yours truly, Scott Leite, Health Agent C: Town Clerk Western Bristol County & Foxborough Tobacco & Alcohol Prevention Collaborative One Government Center, 41h fl. Fall River, MA 02722 Office: 508-324 2423 Cell: 774 488 9341 Fax: 508 324 2429 Serving Boards of Health in Attleboro N. Attleboro Berkley Dighton Fall River Foxborough Mansfield Norton Seekonk Somerset Swansea Taunton Westport Marilyn Edge, Director Email: WBristolTobaccoAlcohol@gmail.com To: Health Agents From: Marilyn Edge Tobacco Control Re: Collaborative Handouts Date: July 28, 2016 You are receiving this memo, with enclosed documents, as you were unable to attend the collaborative meeting held on June 9, 2016. Enclosed you will find: The latest Tobacco Community Fact Sheet for your community; Please note that I do not put this material together — it is done at DPH. and the data sources are on the last page. The most current printout for FDA Compliance Checks in your community; A copy of the Memorandum of Agreement that was signed when your community came on board with the collaborative; A copy of the Collaborative Tobacco Policies indicating who has what initiative in their current Regulation; A copy of the Tobacco Policy Sunmiary List updated in April 2016; This document describes why each initiative is important. A packet of the most recent Municipal Lists indicating which conmumities have adopted the various initiatives in the current tobacco sample regulation. Collaborative memo Page 2 It gives Sarah and I great pleasure to note that the tobacco funding was brought back to the Fall River Collaborative in 2005, for 2 years, and we are still here. Our contracts have been amended to extend us through FY 17, at level funding, without having to re -write the grant. The only change to our FY 17 Workplan is that we, as a collaborative, are no longer part of the FDA pilot project. That was a decision made by the City of Fall River due to accounting issues resulting because our fiscal year and the FDA fiscal year do not mesh. After several years of accounting issues we gave up the FDA pilot project piece to keep the grant moving forward. We will have to re -write for FY 18 but the parameters of that application have not yet been given to us. I am anticipating that it will be similar to the initial MOA which is why I enclosed it for you. As we are expecting the best case scenario to be `level funded' there is no guarantee that we will be asked to take on more communities. I will keep you informed. If you or your Boards have any questions about the enclosed documents please don't hesitate to contact me. I will be happy to meet with you or the Boards at any time. Both Sarah and I are looking forward to working collaboratively with all of you