Indy passes benefits for domestic partners

A proposal to provide health benefits for the domestic partners of city employees was approved Monday by the Indianapolis City-County Council.

In a 20-8 bipartisan vote, both Democrats and Republicans declared “it is in the best interests of the city and county to provide equitable benefits to all married and unmarried employees of the city and county who are in a domestic partnership,
irrespective of whether they are same-sex couples or different-sex couples,” according to the ordinance.

If approved by Republican Mayor Greg Ballard, the proposal will go into effect Jan. 1, 2013. The mayor does have the power to veto the ordinance.

Council Member Angela Mansfield, a Democrat and chief sponsor of the proposal, said Ballard has 10 days once he receives the proposal to either approve or veto it.

Proposals from meetings generally reach Ballard by the following Thursday, Mansfield said.

If the mayor does veto the proposal, the council could override Ballard with 20 votes in favor of the ordinance. However, Mansfield said an override would be unlikely.

For employees’ domestic partners to receive full health benefits from the city, the couple must meet several requirements, including sharing a primary residence for the preceding 365 days or showing joint responsibility for basic living expenses.

Since 1997, Bloomington has had a similar health care policy in place for their employees’ domestic partners. Carmel also has a similar policy on the books. These two cities, not Indianapolis, have been the leaders in this movement, Mansfield said.

“They’ve kind of set more of an example for us,” she said. “It’s not as though we’re a leader at this point.”

Indianapolis city officials performed a fiscal impact study to see how the added beneficiaries would affect the city financially, Mansfield said. The study revealed that about 28 employees would take advantage of the proposal costing the city a few hundred thousand dollars.

“I think this sends a signal that we are a family-friendly city and we want to attract the top talent to matter what their marital status,” Mansfield said.

Daniel Grundmann, director of human resources for the City of Bloomington and a supporter of the policy, said he hopes that as a higher profile city, Indianapolis’ passing of the ordinance will influence other organizations to follow suit.

“I think the policy positions the City of Bloomington as an employee-friendly workplace,” Grundmann said. “With our experience at the City of Bloomington, I’ve found most of the fears I’ve heard from organizations who oppose the proposal because of cost or potential fraudulent behavior are unfounded.”