16 ▼ January 16. 1®98 ▼ Just out
The PRIDE
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A proactive stance
Vancouver city administrators vow to adopt a domestic
partner benefits plan for gay and lesbian workers
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local news
by Inga Sorensen
/
he City of Vancouver is poised to
implement a domestic partnership ben
efit plan for its gay and lesbian em
ployees.
“This is a great New Year’s gift,”
says Jim Moeller, a member of the Vancouver
City Council.
Benefit program decisions are the responsibil
ity of city administration, not the council.
According to Moeller, who is openly gay, a
domestic partnership benefit policy was first pro
posed in November.
That version, he says, applied to the partners
of gay and lesbian personnel as well as unmarried
heterosexual employees.
riage option.
“I’m doing lots of soul-searching about this
right now,” he says. “I know there will be a
reaction no matter what I do.”
The city already has a workforce diversity
program in effect that includes a prohibition of
discrimination in city hiring on the basis of actual
or perceived sexual orientation. The program’s
vision statement reads, in part: “The city of Van
couver does not tolerate discrimination of any
form. To this end, the city takes a proactive stance
in attracting, hiring, training and maintaining a
workforce which reflects the talent and diversity
of our community.”
Many local governments and businesses have
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Jim Moeller
City officials, he adds, initially discussed in
stituting a plan in the early spring.
“But it seems they want to do it as soon as
possible and probably with one major departure
from the original plan,” he says.
The “major departure” relates to who will be
covered by the policy.
“The city manager [Vernon Stoner] feels the
options for marriage and subsequent benefits are
already available to heterosexual employees and
that is not the case for the city’s gay and lesbian
employees,” Moeller says. “Additionally, most
of the criticism from the community has been that
including heterosexuals in the policy encourages
‘shacking up’ instead of marriage.”
Stoner tells Just Out he is “leaning” toward
restricting eligibility to gay and lesbian person
nel, because heterosexual couples have the mar-
instituted domestic partnership benefit plans to
maintain a competitive edge.
Among the governmental employers on the
West Coast who offer some form of health cover
age to domestic partners are the California cities
of Berkeley, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, Oak
land, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and
West Hollywood; the cities of Seattle and Port
land; and Multnomah County.
Under Vancouver’s proposal, employees
would have to, among other stipulations, share a
residence, be in an intimate committed relation
ship, and share responsibility for basic living
expenses. Prospective participants would have to
sign an affidavit to this effect.
Moeller expects a plan to be in place by the end
of January.
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