Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 30, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, September 27, 2013 Page: 16 of 44
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DERAILED | LGBT advocates planned on thanking the board of directors for their vote, but after the delay
tactics, only Cd Kirven, front, chided the board over her disappointment. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
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equalization began in July 2012 when Andrew
Moss contacted DART about being added to his
husband's health plan. Moss is a former DART
police officer who left for health reasons while
his husband continued to work for the agency.
After a Change.org petition and correspon-
dence from Resource Center, Moss received a let-
ter from DART explaining its position. Human
Resources told him they "preferred not to get
into the choices of their employees."
In August 2012, Resource Center CEO Cece
Cox met with DART Deputy Executive Director
Jesse Oliver to discuss domestic partner benefits.
Since then, McDonnell has attended every
board meeting and those committee meetings
where the topic was discussed. For each board
meeting after the administrative committee ap-
proved a plan in February, he's arranged speak-
ers to discuss the variety of reasons DP benefits
should be offered.
That list of speakers has included three minis-
ters, a rabbi, two former city council members
and representatives of about 20 LGBT and allied
organizations.
Discussions continued until April when fur-
ther discussion of DP benefits was tabled until
after the Supreme Court ruled on California's
Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Mar-
riage Act. Despite the suspended discussions,
speakers continued to address the monthly
board meeting.
After the court rulings led to restored marriage
equality in California and federal benefits for
same-sex married couples, DART took up the
topic again in August.
But because of an attorney general's opinion,
the domestic partner plan became a plus-one
plan, which was approved by the administrative
committee. Any DART employee could add an-
other adult living in the same residence and shar-
ing financial responsibilities.
At a committee-of-the-whole meeting earlier
this month, board members were confused by the
change and the possible added expense of cover-
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ing heterosexual partners who lived together.
Michael Muhammad, DART's vice president
of diversity and innovative services, said DART
already covered common-law spouses. So the ar-
guments by some board members for not cover-
ing same-sex partners fell apart as they realized
the agency already was insuring the domestic
partners of heterosexual employees.
The committee-of-the-whole then voted in
favor of the plus-one plan. Only Chrisman voted
against passage. Cheney abstained. The commit-
tee-of-the-whole had to take a second vote before
passing it along for a full board vote.
The final vote by the committee-of-the-whole
happened at the committee meeting this week.
Cheney changed his vote from abstain to no. He
called for a roll call vote, and when his name was
called, he said he consulted with Garland city of-
ficials who encouraged him to vote no.
Garland Mayor Douglas Athas said he did
speak to Cheney.
"I'm not opposed to that vote," he said. "He
struggled with it."
Athas said his opposition to the plus-one plan
is that it's open to abuse. He said he understood
the position t put same-sex couples in, but the
plan could cover nieces, nephews or anyone else
and the agency had no way to monitor it.
The tactics to break the board meeting later
that evening worries activists who have followed
DART's progress on this issue and hope it passes
in time to be implemented in 2014.
"We need a crowd on Oct. 8," McDonnell said.
He asked members of the community to wear
red shirts. DART board meetings begin at 6:30
p.m. at DART headquarters, 1401 Pacific Ave.
Meanwhile, McDonnell said some LGBT or-
ganizing needs to be done in Garland.
"We have been invited to bring equality to
their doorstep," McDonnell said.
In addition to bringing Garland residents to
the next DART meeting, he's planning to help
Garland residents petition the council for a
nondiscrimination ordinance. The next Garland
City Council meeting is on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at Gar-
land City Hall, 200 N. Fifth St. ■
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Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 30, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, September 27, 2013, newspaper, September 27, 2013; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1179805/m1/16/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.