Councilors blamed Mayor Alex Morse for pushing for a needle exchange program without allowing a City Council vote.
Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse, left, and City Council President Kevin A. Jourdain are at odds over the approval of the latest needle exchange program in the Paper City.HOLYOKE – The latest controversy over establishment of a needle exchange program has amounted to a bypassing of proper process that threatens to usurp City Council authority, councilors said Tuesday.
Councilors blamed Mayor Alex B. Morse for pushing for a needle exchange program without allowing a City Council vote.
Morse said the local approvals for such a program were the ones that happened on July 9, which was a 3-0 Board of Health vote and the mayor’s approval.
Councilors disagreed, saying that local approval on such an issue must include a City Council vote.
They said the mayor should have heeded previous City Council votes in the past 16 years against needle exchange and a nonbinding referendum in 2001 in which voters did the same.
“I want to make sure the council doesn’t lose its authority to vote on those things. Our local approval power has been usurped for us,” council President Kevin A. Jourdain said.
“We really have to hold onto the strings of power that we hold,” Councilor Daniel B. Bresnahan said.
Councilor Todd A. McGee said Morse gave false information when he said at the July 9 health board meeting that the City Council was aware needle exchange would be voted on.
“That didn’t happen,” McGee said, in remarks outside the meeting. “That’s the whole problem, there is no transparency here.”
Ward 7 Councilor Gordon P. Alexander said the process that transpired with the needle exchange July 9 vote was a joke.
Councilor at Large James M. Leahy praised Jourdain's handling of the opposition to how Morse's actions on the needle exchange program..
"It's not good for the city," Leahy said of needle exchange, before the meeting.
Councilors were debating an order from Jourdain. The order called for the City Council to contest implementation of the needle exchange program. It also called for the council to authorize the council president to retain legal counsel to contest such a program.
The council passed the order 13-2.
Morse said the Board of Health will reconsider its needle exchange vote Tuesday at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
“My administration has taken the steps to be transparent,” Morse said of the councilors criticism.
The debate at City Hall came hours after City Solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross issued a cease and desist order to halt the needle exchange program. Tapestry Health has been running the program at its office at 15-A Main St. since the health board vote and approval of the mayor last month.
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Rodriguez-Ross’ opinion that the needle exchange program must shut down at least temporarily comes in contrast to a comment she made Friday to The Republican and MassLive.com She said then she agreed that the Board of Health vote July 9 authorizing needle exchange was done in a meeting that violated the state open meeting law, as Jourdain had contended in a complaint.
The open meeting law was violated July 9 because the health board failed to list specifically on the agenda that a discussion and vote on needle exchange would be held.
Rodriguez-Ross had told a reporter Friday she believed the needle exchange program could continue operating despite the open meeting law violation. But in a letter Wednesday to Commissioner John Auerbach of the state Department of Public Health and Tapestry Health President Leslie Tarr Laurie, she said the needle exchange program “must be suspended immediately.”
In needle exchange, people submit used intravenous-drug needles and get clean needles in return. The goal is to reduce the spread of AIDS and hepatitis C, diseases for which there are no cures and which can be spread through the sharing of infected needles.
Supporters have said needle exchange is valuable because it can save lives.
Foes have said allowing needle exchange risks making the city a haven for drug addicts who know they can get needles to shoot up heroin.