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If you left your heart in San Francisco, you might be able to bring it home to San Jose if you work for the city. The San Jose City Council took up the issue of including same-sex married city employees in its benefits program.
Tina Salas, a city employee with the city's Graffiti Enforcement Unit, married long-time girlfriend Kathleen Chavez in San Francisco last month. Salas was told she couldn't immediately enroll her spouse for benefits, unlike married couples who can sign up immediately. Councilman Ken Yeager and Mayor Ron Gonzales then proposed to make city policy treat all married city workers the same.
Going into the meeting, the proposal looked like it was going to pass. District 4 Councilman Chuck Reed, Vice Mayor Pat Dando and District 2 Councilman Forrest Williams were on the record against the policy change. But when the council convened Tuesday afternoon, 103 people signed up to speak on the issue, delaying the decision. The vote had not yet been taken as of press time.
"We believe it is right and just that employee benefits provided to spouses of city employees should be applied even-handedly," Gonzales and Yeager wrote in a memo to city council members, urging them to approve the proposal. "Unless court decisions later rule against the legality of same-sex marriages from San Francisco or other areas of the nation, we must treat all our employees equally."
Before voting on the proposal, District 10 representative Dando said she had asked City Attorney Richard Doyle to clarify the difference between domestic partnership and same-sex marriage in regard to city policy. Dando, along with Reed and Williams, then wrote a position paper stating that San Jose shouldn't take action until the state Supreme Court rules on the legality of same-sex marriage.
Reed said he wants to give equal treatment to domestic partnerships by changing city policy—within state law.
District 1 Councilwoman Linda LeZotte supported the measure because she supports civil rights. "I think we should not be discriminating against people," she said.
More than 3,600 couples have married in San Francisco since Mayor Gavin Newsom began allowing same-sex weddings Feb. 12. Officials in Multnomah County, Ore., New Paltz, N.Y., and Sandoval County, N. M., have now followed suit.
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