The vote was expected, as was the City Council president's vow after it that he will seek a court injunction to halt the program. Watch video
This 9:39 p.m. update adds numerous comments from Board of Health meeting on needle exchange story originally posted at 6:50 p.m.
HOLYOKE -- The Board of Health voted 3-0 again Tuesday to permit operation of a needle exchange program in a decision applauded as a public safety boost and admonished for widening a rift in city government.
The vote in a City Hall meeting packed with mostly supporters of the program was expected – as was City Council President Kevin A. Jourdain’s vow after it that he will seek a court injunction to halt a needle exchange program.
But Mayor Alex B. Morse, who said he supports needle exchange on the basis it can save lives, said late Tuesday a city vs. city lawsuit can’t happen because only the city solicitor can represent the city in court. The current solicitor supports Morse on needle exchange.
The health board vote means that Tapestry Health Wednesday morning will resume its needle exchange program at 15-A Main St., Timothy W. Purington, Tapestry director of prevention services, said after the meeting.
Supporters said letting people exchange used and possibly infected needles for clean ones can curb the spread of diseases and save lives. One way diseases for which there are no cures, like AIDS and hepatitis C, can spread is through sharing of infected needles.
Among those who spoke in favor of a needle exchange program were Morse, Police Chief James M. Neiswanger, Kevin Cranston, director of infectious disease for the state Department of Public Health, and T. Stephen Jones, a retired senior scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.
Others such as Jourdain and residents like Paula M. Brunault and Angela Gerhard spoke against. They said the program just puts needles into the hands of illegal-drug users, prompts more discarded needles on sidewalks and yards, and ignores a 2001 nonbinding referendum in which voters rejected the program.
Jourdain told the health board it lacked authority to permit a needle exchange program.
Jourdain and other councilors back a 1996 ruling by former city solicitor Daniel M. Glanville that said local approval on needle exchange means the mayor and City Council.
“Let me first say you have no authority to adopt a needle exchange program,” Jourdain said. "It can't be any more clear than that." But current City Solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross said local approval of such a program under state law means the Board of Health and mayor.
The health board consists of Chairwoman Katherine M. Liptak and Patricia A. Mertes, who are registered nurses, and physician Robert S. Mausel.
Rodriguez-Ross on Aug. 3 ordered the board to meet again because its July 9 meeting violated the open meeting law by failing to note needle exchange would be discussed and voted on.
Her ruling came after Jourdain filed an open meeting law complaint about the July 9 vote.
On Tuesday, the health board voted 3-0 to rescind the July 9 vote and then heard 90 minutes of comments.
Cranston said 301 people with HIV-AIDS were living here in 2011. And 39 percent of them said they were injected-drug users. Needle exchange can help reduce that, he said.
“This is well-established science,” Cranston said.
Jourdain questioned the cost of needle exchange programs. Cranston said it ranges from up to $65,000 a year in Provincetown to $350,000 in Boston. Holyoke’s would cost about $150,000 a year, he said.
Morse said he has been accused (by Jourdain, though he didn’t mention him) of pushing needle exchange as a personal agenda. His agenda is protecting people, he said.
“It is my personal agenda to protect and make sure the people in this community are safe,” Morse said.
Neiswanger said drug use is an epidemic thriving despite billions of dollars spent against it. With an officer here getting stuck every year or so by a needle in the line of duty, he said, options like needle exchange are needed.
“I support saving lives, and that’s what this does,” Neiswanger said.
Councilor at Large James M. Leahy said that with three children, he worries about illegal drugs, but said needle exchange didn't seem like the right step.
Ward 2 Councilor Anthony Soto said, "If it saves one life, I'm all for it."
Purington, the former Ward 4 councilor, high-fived Councilor at Large Rebecca Lisi after the board's 3-0 permission for needle exchange.
"Needle exchange is safe, effective and necessary," Purington said.
Jay A. Breines, executive director of the Holyoke Health Center, said he urged adoption of a needle exchange program 15 years ago.
"If we had done it 15 years ago, lives would have been saved," Breines said.
Several speakers used a phrase Morse has been stating, that needle exchange was a matter better left to medical specialists like the Board of Health and not politics.
"It is a matter of public safety, not politics," said Mimi Wielgosz, of Hampden Street.
Brunault, of Pleasant Street, said she is a registered nurse who urged a no vote on the 2001 needle exchange question.
“I am very much against needle exchange, as I believe most Holyokers are,” Brunault said.
Gerhard, who lives and works at 62 Main St., provided photos of discarded needles she said she has found around her home.
“This is a big concern for us,” Gerhard said.
Michael Franco, of Primrose Lane, said needle exchange is the wrong step for the city.
"If this is moving the city forward, then I want to go back," Franco said.
Councilor at Large Daniel B. Bresnahan, former city health director here, asked the health board to delay consideration of needle exchange in light of the potential legal fight from the City Council.
"Would it behoove you to table the matter for two months?" Bresnahan said.
Liptak replied, "Excuse me, Dan, I think you're off topic."
A legal fight appears to be looming. Morse said in an email the city charter prohibits the City Council from obtaining legal counsel outside of the city Law Department, regardless of whether a lawyer would take such a case for no fee.
"The City Council president cannot retain separate legal counsel on behalf of the City Council, and to do so would be in violation of the city charter and ordinances," Morse wrote in a letter dated Monday to the City Council.
Jourdain said Morse was wrong and a court injunction would be sought to stop needle exchange.
"Definitely. I'm not locking myself into a timeline. In due time," Jourdain said.