Sandy council to mull domestic partner benefits

SANDY — A pair of council members here wants to allow city employees to share their health-care benefits with domestic partners.

Councilman Scott Cowdell is leading the effort, saying that expanding the current benefits package could help all kinds of families during this time of economic recession and rampant layoffs.

He and Councilwoman Linda Martinez-Saville have asked outside consultants and city staff to study the potential costs involved.

Cowdell, first elected in 1988, has been interested in the issue for years, he said. His role as a branch president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a local seniors' home reminds him regularly how hard life can be for the uninsured, he said. Older people often have to sell everything they own just for basic care.

In 2006, Salt Lake City approved domestic partner benefits for its employees, giving Cowdell hope, he said. The Salt Lake County Council approved "adult designee" benefits for municipal employees in February.

"That's why I brought it up," Cowdell said. "I wanted to see their restrictions, how they wrote it up. … There must be a way they're doing it."

Martinez-Saville hopes providing benefits to unmarried adults will primarily benefit parents and their adult children or relatives.

"We've been talking about this for a year now," she said. "I'm so glad it's coming back, especially with the economy."

Cowdell acknowledged that the policy would help gay and lesbian couples living under the same roof.

"Homosexuals and lesbians have health issues also," he said. "I think we are our brothers' keepers, right, and so we should be concerned about people and not their orientation. We should be concerned about their health care and their quality of life."

Both Cowdell and Martinez-Saville said the majority of employees using the proposed insurance change aren't gay or lesbian but mixed-generation family members.

Sandy Councilman Bryant Anderson is interested in studying the issue but said he would want benefits only for traditional families.

"I'm pretty cautious about creating situations where a lot more money is being committed outside of normal family relationships," he said. "Family stability is my biggest concern about it, and I guess the (cost to the city) would be secondary."

Anderson said the traditional family should be protected, even if many such families are dysfunctional.