"Santa Fe County, where no one drinks alcohol before the age of 21, where adults model low risk alcohol use, and no one drinks and drives." For now, it's fictitious. Nonetheless, the motto lays down an ambitious challenge for those working to address alcohol abuse here.

On Thursday night, about 65 people gathered with city and county elected officials to hear a report from a task force convened this summer after four local teens died in an alcohol-related crash.

The motto was the first thing that appeared on an overhead screen, and many in attendance participated in sub-committees that met on four topics — law enforcement, taxation, education and treatment — and issued recommendations for officials to consider.

Although by the end of the two-hour session the governing bodies no longer had a quorum that could vote to adopt the findings, both the mayor and several county commissioners said they plan to put the matter to a vote this month.

For some in the community, the meeting was a way to get involved.

Lifelong Santa Fean Phillip Trujillo listened earnestly from his seat in the audience at the Santa Fe Public Schools Administration Building. He made his way to a lectern to be the first public commentator on the proposals.

"Everything that was discussed here I can directly relate to," Trujillo said, explaining that his son is serving a prison sentence for an alcohol-related vehicular homicide and that he's personally struggled with alcoholism, even calling himself "a professional drunk driver for 20 years."

"That terrible tragedy brought me to the occasion to quit," he said of his son's crash. "The reason I am here is because I want to do everything I can in my power to prevent another underage person from going down that path and ending up in a situation like my son's. It's a horrible thing to happen to anybody."

Catching youth before alcohol becomes a problem in their lives is one of six recommendations from the group that worked on education. In addition to training more school workers to screen and conduct brief intervention for at-risk students, the group announced plans to start awareness programs for every fifth-grader and high school freshman as well as a parent-targeted campaign.

"Parental disapproval of alcohol use is the main reason youth offer as the reason they do not drink," said Shelley Mann-Lev, a committee member who heads the Santa Fe Public Schools office for underage drinking prevention.

Most of the ideas presented Thursday call for a boost in funding, and one way of getting more cash for prevention programs is to lobby the state for more taxing power or to allocate revenues differently in the future.

Both the City Council and County Commission are expected to support an effort at the next year's state legislative session by Attorney General Gary King, who plans to work for a local-option alcohol tax. Such a tax would allow county voters to impose a tax and commit the revenue for specific purposes such as law enforcement or alcohol treatment, the committee reported.

Current statewide excise taxes on alcohol are not paid by retail consumers at the cash register like the gross-receipts tax. Instead, the state Department of Taxation and Revenue collects the tax from a handful of liquor distributors in the state.

And not all the money from the tax goes to alcohol-abuse prevention or law-enforcement efforts. Of the collected revenues, which last year amounted nearly $41 million, the state general fund receives 58.5 percent and the Local DWI Grant Program gets 41.5 percent. The grant program then appropriates money to cities and counties based on formulas established by state statutes.

County Commissioner Liz Stefanics said the county needs the local option tax in order to create a sustainable way of supporting programs.

Another recommendation from the task force calls for the City Council to get tougher about alcohol on city property. That could mean adding new restrictions to current policies that allow alcohol sales at the airport, golf course and convention center, and require council approval for alcohol sales or consumption for special events at parks or other city property.

The committee urged elected officials to also support efforts by Gov. Bill Richardson to make several changes to drunken-driving laws in the next legislative session, including increasing mandatory jail time for offenders and raising fines and fees charged by the courts.

County Commissioner Harry Montoya said the county backs that plan, but only if it is "held harmless" when it comes to the increase in jail costs that would accompany such a law change.

The intention of the governor's proposal, said state DWI Czar Rachel O'Connor, is for revenue from fees to help counties and cities offset the costs associated with longer mandatory incarceration.

City Police Chief Aric Wheeler said he was initially concerned about the potential of a budget hit but decided it would be worth it in the long run.

"I came to the realization that ... ultimately I want to reduce (driving under the influence). Ultimately I don't want people to commit the crime," he said. "I should see a spike in the cost initially, but the longer-term goal is that there should be a reduced number of DWI offenses."

Although not identified as immediate priorities, those working on the law-enforcement committee also recommend advocacy to raise the age requirement for driver's licenses, and that regular public information be disseminated about stores or bars found selling alcohol to intoxicated people or minors.

When it comes to treatment, a group of health care professionals who made recommendations say they are looking closely at a one-stop-shop model that the city of Albuquerque plans to start this year to provide medically monitored detox and long-term residential care for those in recovery.

Enhancing Santa Fe's Care Connection service for treatment is important, as is better coordination of current resources, and advocacy for Medicaid reimbursement would also go a long way, committee members said.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.

DRINKING IN SANTA FE COUNTY

1,308 arrests for DWI in 2008
130 were underage drinkers from 15 to 20 years old
893 DWI cases heard by judges
684 convictions
10 average number of days a convicted drunk driver spends in jail between 2007 and 2009
77 percent of residents had their first drink before age 21
24 percent of middle-school students report having their first drink before age 11
12 percent of residents report driving while under the influence in the last year