The Portland City Council plans to meet privately with its lawyer Wednesday to discuss the city’s Needle Exchange Program, which provides clean syringes, overdose reversal drugs and other harm reduction services to intravenous drug users.
City officials did not immediately explain why the discussion would take place in executive session rather than in public.
Mayor Kate Snyder said the meeting was previously scheduled for Feb. 1, but was moved up after a Press Herald report Tuesday in which the city was criticized for running the only program in the state to maintain restrictive policies for accessing supplies and services during the pandemic. Gov. Janet Mills issued an executive order in March allowing more flexibility in syringe services programs, but Portland’s program has maintained strict policies that some public health advocates say has limited access and put people at greater risk.
Executive sessions are reserved for limited purposes such as consulting with the council’s attorney on its legal rights and responsibilities, and on pending or contemplated legal actions. It’s not clear whether the council will discuss the governor’s executive order and the city’s needle distribution policy, specific staffing or management issues at the Needle Exchange Program or whether there is a pending legal action against or contemplated by the city.
“We were advised there were some issues that needed to be discussed in executive session – we just got that notice late last week,” Snyder said. “If there’s non-executive session material that needs to be covered, we would do that in public with the full council.”
A city notice released Thursday afternoon said the session was needed “to consult with its attorney regarding the city’s legal rights and duties concerning the Needle Exchange Program.” Neither city attorney Danielle West-Chuhta nor City Hall Communications Director Jessica Grondin responded to an email Tuesday requesting additional information on why the council was holding a closed session.
Syringe services programs are a proven harm reduction strategy for intravenous drug users. They provide clean syringes to people who inject drugs to prevent the spread of infectious diseases that come with needle sharing, including hepatitis C and HIV. And they are also a way of building trust and relationships with clients, so they can easily access treatment when they are ready.
Maine has 10 state-sanctioned and regulated syringe services programs, which have traditionally been referred to as needle exchanges. Portland’s is the only municipally run program in the state and the only program not to expand services under the executive order Mills issued in March to ensure access to services while minimizing potential exposure to the coronavirus.
Before the pandemic, the number of clean syringes that programs could distribute were limited to the number of used syringes returned by a client, which is known as a one-for-one policy. Syringe programs also were restricted to a certain hours and specific locations.
Mills’ order suspended those rules during the pandemic, allowing programs to distribute as many clean syringes and other supplies as needed. It also gave programs more flexibility to change their hours and provide mobile services throughout the municipality.
Grondin said last week that the increased number of syringes being carried by people staying at the homeless shelter and the number of dirty syringes being found in public prompted the city to conduct an audit of its Needle Exchange Program in the fall to ensure that staff and volunteers were adhering to the city’s more restrictive policies. She said the audit showed that the staff was not abiding by the one-for-one policy.
“Following that audit, we clarified our policies for staff and volunteers that, despite the flexibility provided by the governor’s executive order, we are continuing to follow a one-for-one limit on exchanges (with limited exceptions) for the reasons mentioned above,” she said.
City officials did not respond to follow-up questions sent on Tuesday.
Zoe Brokos, the former substance use prevention and harm reduction services coordinator at the Needle Exchange Program, said she resigned in November after being placed on administrative leave at the onset of the city’s audit. She said three other staffers resigned between July and December. Brokos declined to discuss the circumstances of her departure.
Portland’s decision to maintain its restrictive policies goes against advice from public health experts, including the federal government. And it comes at a time when overdose deaths are on pace to reach record highs in Maine and throughout the United States.
Snyder deferred commenting on whether she agreed with the city’s decision not to expand its services and programs in response to the governor’s order.
“I want to hear from staff and we will go from there,” she said.
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