Mercer Island Communities That Care (CTC) and the City Council are taking tangible steps toward developing a community-wide plan to reduce youth drinking. The process started with a conversation during the Jan. 4 City Council meeting, in which CTC director Cindy Goodwin presented the Council with a draft community plan for the coming year.

“[In September] you told us to come back with a plan that has more specificity. We’ve had lots of good discussion and lots of good suggestion,” Goodwin told the Council.

CTC’s latest plan focuses on three areas: community messaging; parent education/information; and developing a system of fines and fees. Yet the implementation of this goes much deeper. It is a challenge that spans well beyond the City Council’s parameters.

“I wish there were one big law or action I could have you take that’d have a big impact on underage drinking, but we don’t have that available for us,” Goodwin told the Council. “Many communities are taking small steps to change norms, piece by piece. It’s not for the short-term. We need to have you working with us in the long-term.”

A strong mantra

The first step for the Council, Goodwin said, would be do develop a mantra that “speaks positively about our community strengths and conveys the City Council’s commitment to reducing underage drinking.” As follow-up, the Council would initiate frequent community conversations on the topic, as well as distribute its message to Island students, parents and the greater community.

“At the beginning of each year, set aside agenda time for an annual update on the process/progress of addressing underage drinking by the City and the community at large,” read the Jan. 4 agenda bill.

Taking a holistic stance against youth drinking is key to the campaign’s success. Councilmembers emphasized the fact that parents, teachers, coaches, religious and community members, law officials and Island businesses all hold responsibility for backing up CTC’s mission.

“This is something that we need to figure out. It probably means messaging at the community center, at every school event, at churches, synagogues and non-profits so that no minor can turn around without getting strong discouragement against drugs and alcohol,” said Councilmember Dan Grausz.

Dancing or drinking

The campaign’s second focus area is educating and informing Island parents on the risks of youth drinking. This goal is of particular importance during the weekends that MIHS holds school dances, such as this Saturday’s Winter Tolo. Parents are often privy to teenage behavior before and after the school dance, and therefore have some control over the night’s decision-making.

A specific issue that was brought up by the Council is the tradition of renting a limousine or town car to drive teenage groups to and from the dances. With a private company driver behind a tinted glass window, it is easy for teens to sneak alcohol in the back of the limo or to climb into the town car drunk for a ride home. Although parents might see this as a safer alternative to drunk driving, Councilmembers argued that it should not be tolerated, nonetheless.

“Let’s bring the limousine companies that tend to carry kids with alcohol and get good business into the discussion, so it becomes clear that we’re not only talking about it, but that we have very strong presence,” said Councilmember Mike Cero.

According to Goodwin, Mercer Island police officers have spoken with local limousine companies about adhering to a no-alcohol policy when serving Island youth.

The Reporter talked to three popular limousine rental services on the Eastside and the managers of all three emphasized that their drivers take the “no-alcohol policy” with all seriousness.

“We don’t allow drinking in the back of the car. We check IDs. Especially when it comes to teenage parties, we’re very particular about little things,” said Sunny Kumar, owner of All State Limo in Bellevue. “If there is some problem, we call the parents.”

Jay Singh, the manager of Best Limos and Town Cars in Bellevue, said his drivers are extra vigilant when chaperoning teenagers.

“If we smell liquor, then we call the parents and we call the police. We absolutely enforce that 100 percent,” Singh said — adding, however, that the company has never had a known incident with youth drinking.

David Martinez, the manager of Crown Limousine, which often serves Islanders for high school dances, said that he does not recall one incident when there has been a problem with alcohol.

“That’s the first thing we do, is tell the parents [about our no-alcohol policy] and get a contact number from them. If anything goes wrong, we can inform them,” Martinez said.

Fines and fees

From a financial standpoint, the city and CTC hope to change the direction of where alcohol-related fines and fees are funneled.

“Currently, this money is put into the general fund of the city. We’re proposing to take this money and direct it toward prevention programs,” Goodwin said.

This decision, however, would have to be approved by the City Council. It was a proposal worthy of debate.

“It is a drop in the bucket, but it makes you also think about what the possibilities are,” Grausz said.

Others disagreed.

“The motion as presented here is vague. I’ve heard that the general fund is under some stress. It may be just a drop in a bucket, but that means death by thousands of cuts,” said Councilmember El Jahnke.

Yet in the end, the City Council voted to pass the CTC agenda item, with the stated plan to rechannel fines levied against individuals for drinking-related charges toward the CTC campaign.

City staff will discuss how these funds should be reallocated and return to the City Council with their plan.

The Island CTC campaign runs off a $83,000 federal grant for the purpose of reducing underage drinking on the Island. This campaign will later embrace the problem of drug use on the Island, which is CTC’s next step, according to Goodwin.

For more information, visit: www.mercerisland-ctc.com.