Tuesday, October 8, 2002
Colorado Springs, Colorado revisits domestic partner benefits to city employees
A story published today by the Denver Post reports that a proposal to grant full benefits to same-sex partners of city employees of Colorado Springs, Colorado is sure to raise controversy in this bastion of social conservatism.
City Manager Lorne Kramer proposed the move last week by including expanded benefit funds in his 2003 budget plan.
"For the city government to say now officially that the traditional family, led by a mom and dad, is nothing special is very sad and very wrong," said Tom Minery, vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family. "When you erase traditional definitions, you're only left with favoring whoever can make the most vocal argument."
Colorado Springs has long struggled with the issue. In May 1997, the City Council adopted a resolution stating that it "will have zero tolerance for any form of discrimination of a racial, ethnic, sexual or religious nature."
The term "sexual" was challenged repeatedly for the next two years, ending in 1999 when City Council refused to send the question to the voters at the urging of Councilman Dawson Hubert.
Carolyn Cathey, former board president of the Pikes Peak Community Center for Gays and Lesbians, said the climate in Colorado Springs has "definitely" changed in recent years.
Extending benefits to same-sex partners of city employees would cost an estimated $58,000 next year, based on a "guesstimate" of 25 city employees who might take advantage of it.
City staff members argue that equal benefits are needed to attract and keep good employees and compete with others in the market.
"We had one woman whose partner was sick and she was not allowed to take family sick time," said Ruth Olson, co-chairman of the city's Workforce Management Council. "We had a firefighter who had to go to the legal expense of becoming guardian of her partner's son so he could be covered."
The council is scheduled to discuss Kramer's proposed budget in work sessions Thursday and Friday. A formal public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Oct. 17.
The outcome is hard to predict, but at least four of the council's nine members in the past have supported equal treatment of gays and lesbians.
