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Smokers get break in public housing  

A city councilor's attempt to ban smoking in public housing was quickly extinguished last night.

Councilor Tom Furey wants the City Council to send a resolution to the state Legislature urging it to act, but the measure failed to get support from the Committee on Public Health and Safety, which met last night at City Hall.

While acknowledging Assistant City Solicitor Jerry Parisella's opinion that the City Council "lacks the jurisdiction to impose a smoking ban" in properties controlled by the Salem Housing Authority, Furey said he felt an obligation to protect public health and safety.

"We have to act," Furey said. "We have a moral responsibility. If not us, who? If not now, when?"

In response, Ward 7 Councilor Joe O'Keefe, citing Furey's attempts to impose other bans in the past, asked: "How can we as a City Council morally control all these things?"

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