8.24.2023 Board of Health

foreign to everyone and welcome to the Board of Health ritual meeting on Thursday August 24th scheduled for 3 30. my name is Thomas Corey present with me via Zoom is Michael Coughlin and Tess Curran our agent of the board Dr gagliadi is not with us at this time various guests and participants in today's meeting pursuant to the open meeting or any person may make an audio or video

recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes okay the next item is the approval of the minutes of the meeting from July

27th are there any additions deletions or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting as printed and I just want to compliment Sandy this is this is a heck of a set of minutes you did a good job Sandy I will pass that along to Sandy move to approve the minutes okay second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes okay next we have the request for approval of a tattoo

practitioner license for Carlos Muniz of Fall River to work at the fall of a tattoo company 1412 South Main Street Fall River um Lisa you are presenting yes um I have Carlos here um it actually expired in April they felt that he wanted a little more time um so they called and he's ready and every you know his he has all his um all the paperwork seemed to be in order

everything was here the word I want to think yeah but yeah his credentials are all in order okay so yeah he's ready to go I've been by there I actually watched Spruce tattoo yesterday it's a lot of fun Bruce I like that oh but everything yeah I'll come visit Bruce someday okay um any any questions by the board questions do we have a motion to Grant move to move to Grant the license

oh second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes okay Carlos congratulations and good luck no thank you very much have a great rest of the day you too thanks guys okay next item on the agenda is a minimum housing hearing a violation report and correction order uh Josh is with us but in the conversation yesterday I understand the occupant has vacated the premises and the repairs are underway

somewhat is that correct Josh yes sir I spoke with the owner on uh Monday and the occupant has since been moved out and he just he just got possession of the apartment so I went by the yes went by the yesterday and he is working on the apartment so it's a mess I mean so he's got at least a month's worth of work there to do I mean it's definitely

a new bathroom kitchen so he's got quite a bit of work to do in that apartment okay so at this time there's really nothing for us to do because I think the general is just looking for time exactly okay all right Josh thank you very much no problem next we have a tobacco violation hearing this is a second offense hearing of the ACT to modernize the Tobacco Control by Stop and Save at 208 Stafford Road Fall

River is Jennifer presenting yes yes this is me yep all right hi um so I'm Jennifer I'm the Tobacco Control coordinator uh so on June 16th um a compliance check was done at Stop and Save and they were able to purchase a pack of backwards um cigars for seven dollars uh after that they did get a cease and desist order for a thousand dollars for their first offense uh shortly after I received um a complaint

that they were selling uh flavored products so on July 26th um an inspection was done and I was able to find a large amount of flavored tobacco products in menthol cigarettes um at Stop and Save uh so July 28th a couple days later I did send over a second cease and desist order on to them and issued them a second fine of two thousand dollars and with a possible suspension so in total

they did receive a three thousand dollar fine um but all the app all Their fines are paid up to date as of July 31st okay sure could you state your name and address for the record

sure because you state your name and address for the record yeah my name is okay and um now um two fines with within a short period of time menthol cigarettes which you know are not legal in Massachusetts to sell or to have um give us the defense yeah so uh basically I'm uh this is my store and I have another one also over here but I'm coming here like every two weeks one time

so usually I'm living in in New York City 1760 Lexington Avenue so I have a manager over here uh the first time I heard that he got he said to the uh I we got some uh mineral cigarettes on one cell and I don't even know what's going on when I come we found something like after the fine so I already fired everyone dealing with this the guy the manager

and even even there was a guy who surprised him I was waiting for him if he's come maybe I'll gonna take his information and I can give it to Miss Jennifer so you're not on the premises every day no uh I'm coming like weekly weekly uh every two weeks every other weeks so so you're claiming I have a plan uh I'm sorry whoa so um if so you're you're an absentee owner okay you admit that um

so who orders the cigarettes in and in supplies like that yeah there was a guy his name uh Rafiq so as much until we see them is he the is he the manager of the store is he authorized to purchase who's authorized to purchase these things they buy from from the cash money in from my store because someone influenced them they say uh some customer asked frequently ask them if they have any flavor babe what

was illegal like he's not we're not supposed to have anything so so you knowingly purchased the menthol cigarettes knowing they were illegal no we we never sell before since I opened the store I was we wasn't selling it so my manager it was his idea he sold it and we got fined and I fired him already he's saying that the employee is the one who ordered the stuff and that employee's been fired

if I had to pay a two thousand dollar fine some of my employees would be fired too so that's you know it's a small business owner it was probably wise to take those Personnel actions sir but it doesn't absolve you from uh the the fines or or the our consideration of the suspension so what are you doing now sir what's the corrective action plan that's the big thing nowadays so this never happens

again you're never going to sell to a minor again you're never going to have menthol cigarettes again what's the action plan here

yourself and I promise nothing gonna happen like that as long in the history with me it's not gonna happen anymore gentlemen questions opinions I missed the beginning was this the first or second offense this is second offense first was the sale to miners this is the sale of Menthol flavors and the gentleman has paid the fines already he's paid three thousand dollars so we're looking at suspension or not

we're looking at suspension or not so that is suspension how long suspension is up it's optional which it's not uh Something That We're expected to do we're required to do we have um you you have the board has um suspended previously for the second Offense for seven days um for more recent um establishments so yeah I remember that what I what I'm wondering is if we have ever not suspended for a second offense in

the recent past no we've always suspended yeah so well I would think we'd have to be consistent that's that's why I asked the question yeah so unfortunately you know as a business owner you're responsible for the actions of your employees um that's usually the way things go and you know the especially after a first offense the requirements and rules and penalties are brought in front of you

so then when something else happens it's hard to plead that any kind of ignorance of the rules I guess so um I guess I motion for suspension for seven days which is consistent with what we've done we have a second yes second roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gazliani yes okay Jennifer can you make the arrangements for the product for the seven days yes okay I'm sorry sir but no more sales to

minors no more menthol and if you had things like the menthol cigarettes in the house and you bought them not to a deal or you may have a a tax problem also um Jennifer will be in contact with you when the suspension will start and end and the uh the um quarantining of the tobacco products okay so seven day I have to close the store or only I cannot sell the smoke product

you cannot sell tobacco products okay thank you the director's report test what do you have for us today um no uh no major updates from last month other um just then we're continuing on with our grants um and and getting um Michaela up to speed who's our Epi um I'll try and have her come on maybe next month's meeting um once she has some data um to share with you she's been

um she's really been tracking a lot of our tick-born and mosquito-born um illnesses that have been coming through the board locally um and is going to be able to kind of increase our um kind of overall analysis and tracking of that beyond the reports that we receive in Maven so um so we're working on that as well as um having her work on um some opioid settlement or opioid data that will help with the opioid

settlement funds and the work that we're doing we're doing there um and with some of the grants we're going to be able to improve the software um that we have within the city um for um food inspections and other inspections with that software Michaela will be able to to help increase the data that we're able to see there whether or not we're seeing any Trends with foodborne illnesses or certain things like that so

um the grants are really allowing us to to invest more in the department um which in turn will just be able to create more programs and things like that um one of the team members that had been doing the contact tracing Grant she's been um she recently completed her training as a community health worker so she's been out in the community tabling at events um and really just trying to put a face

to the health department in the community and providing relevant education in terms of um you know summer safety sun safety things like that and she'll be continuing that work at least through the end of the grant cycle which will be until June 30th um and then we'll see where funding lies for her to continue on um but those are kind of just some of the main updates again tied into the

grant because it's just helping us pour some funding into the department okay very good thank you did we receive anything for Citizens Imports no we did not okay gentlemen following our usual schedule the next meeting would be the fourth uh Thursday in September would be the 28th is that a little clear for everybody yes what uh Thursdays are going to be difficult for me this semester because

I'm teaching two six two three hour classes on Thursday okay I wonder if if you if you guys would entertain a different day for the next few months I I'm open that's no no problem for me Dr gagliani how was your schedule look um Mondays or Tuesdays would would be okay is Tuesday's okay yeah yeah like the Tuesday with that test would that be all right but the uh with you in the department

yes and that's that should be fine um yes okay so what works for you all we can make work so it would be Tuesday the 26th that sound okay yep thank you thank you both no problem okay Tess is there any other business to come before the board of such a nature that it couldn't make the agenda no no new business very good can we have a motion to adjourn

motion all right do we need a roll call for that yes um Michael uh Thomas Corey yes um Michael Coughlin yes Stephen Gagliardi yes okay we will stand in the German thank you all we won't see each other have a wonderful Labor Day weekend next week do something exciting we'll try thank you thank you