Some say Mayor Mike Rawlings should be more involved after transit agency’s board tables issue until after high court rules on marriage
Mike Rawlings
LGBT advocates are regrouping this week after DART’s Board of Directors suspended action on domestic partner benefits until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules in two marriage equality cases.
The board voted 10-1 to hold off on a decision on offering the benefits to opposite- and same-sex partners of employees during a committee-of-the-whole meeting Tuesday, March 26. A similar motion was voted down during a Feb. 26 meeting.
Rafael McDonnell, communications and advocacy manager at Resource Center Dallas, said the lack of leadership at DART has contributed to continued delays in board action, as well as the agency’s “risk-avoidance” culture.
He said Mayor Mike Rawlings needs to take a larger role in working with board members to pass the benefits.
“There’s not a whole lot of internal involvement at DART, so I think it’d be a good thing for the mayor to be a little bit more involved,” McDonnell said.
Paula Blackmon, chief of staff for Rawlings, told Dallas Voice that the mayor has called appointees since discussion began on the issue in October.
“I am in full support of domestic partners benefits and have expressed this point of view to DART members,” Rawlings told Dallas Voice in an email two days after the vote. “I urge the agency to deal with this issue as soon as they can. It is about workforce equality.”
Eight of the 15 DART board members are appointed by the city of Dallas. Four of the eight Dallas appointees voted in favor of the delay.
Blackmon said Tuesday’s vote seemed to have a lot to do with timing as the high court heard oral arguments in California’s Proposition 8 case Tuesday.
“We’re never going to force an appointee on a position,” Blackmon said. “We will approach them on a position and they’ll make up their minds.”
Blackmon said she’ll work with the Resource Center to come up with a new plan of action when the board takes up the issue again in July.
“I plan to reach out to the Resource Center and regroup and figure out where missed opportunities were and where we could’ve capitalized and see if we can get this moving now,” she said.
In addition to Rawlings’ phone calls, Councilwoman Delia Jasso wrote a letter to DART board Chairman John Danish calling for the agency to add DP benefits.
McDonnell said part of the new strategy will be getting more activists to call and email board members to instill a sense of urgency for the issue, as well as have speakers address the issue at every public comment section at board meetings and find LGBT employees to share their stories of how not having the benefits has impacted them.
During the hour-long discussion about the benefits plan before the vote, some board members requested more accurate estimates about the number of employees who would use the benefits and argued against another delay.
Others claimed that the benefits would be illegal in Texas and could be challenged by the U.S. Supreme Court or the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s opinion on domestic partner benefits expected in May.
Ken Upton, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal’s Dallas office, said the board’s comments were incorrect and misinformed.
He said domestic partner benefits aren’t illegal in Texas because of how municipalities and companies have worded their insurance policies to not violate the state’s marriage amendment. And while he expects a negative opinion from the attorney general, he said that is an opinion, not a ruling.
As for the Supreme Court, he said that the issue of domestic partner benefits isn’t being addressed. He said the federal Defense of Marriage Act case would only affect the federal government’s recognition of same-sex marriage. Upton said the Prop 8 ruling would only affect Texas if the court rules that all state marriage amendments are unconstitutional.
“It’s not justified on those grounds for sure,” Upton said about the delay. “That’s just silly.”
Patti Fink, president of Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, told the board during the public comments section after the vote that she was “taken aback by the level of ignorance on this board on this issue.”
“I encourage you to educate yourself and take advantage of the resources we have in our community to bring yourself up to speed because this is shocking that you’re going to wait for a Supreme Court of the United States decision, which has nothing to do and no impact on this decision,” Fink said.
“I’m concerned and I’m angry that this board is not acting. And we’ll be back to talk to you about this again and again and again.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 29, 2013,
