When aldermen vote tonight whether to override Mayor Parker Wiseman’s veto of a board action that limited Starkville’s plus-one health insurance policy to only legally married spouses, both supporters and detractors of the change will turn their attention to Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn for her decision to either abstain or take a stance on the issue.
The board changed the Sept. 2-approved policy last week with a 4-2 decision and took away expanded health insurance options that would have covered an adult of employees’ choosing, whether that was an unmarried partner or a person in a same-sex partnership unrecognized by the state.
Wynn abstained from that vote, and the action carried by Aldermen David Little, Ben Carver, Roy A. Perkins and Henry Vaughn passed.
Because the Ward 2 alderman abstained, her vote technically counted toward the majority last week. If she again abstains tonight, her vote will count toward overriding Wiseman’s veto, which requires five votes to codify the four aldermen’s previous policy change.
The amendment drew heated comments last week during the meeting’s public comments section, even before Little introduced the item. For an hour, members of the clergy and other religious supporters read from scripture and slammed the city for extending policy to homosexuals, while others who self-identified themselves as members of Starkville’s growing LGBT community and their supporters attacked the pending action as one footed in discrimination.
It is unknown if Wynn will take a stance on the issue tonight, but she argued in favor of the policy’s broad effects and cost-savings for employees’ loved ones in last week’s meeting. From the board table, she also mentioned receiving threatening communications from members of the public in lieu of last week’s vote.
“When I came to your door (on the 2013 campaign trail), you didn’t ask me if I was gay. It just didn’t come up. When city employees (police, fire and sanitation) are called to your homes…do you ask them if they’re gay? You don’t,” she said. “I’ve been so sad the last couple of days. My phone has rang off the hook. I’ve opened up emails with threatening letters. I shouldn’t have to represent Ward 2 and be afraid to go to Kroger at any time I want or go into a restaurant and be thinking someone is going to say or do something to me. I shouldn’t have appeared at a meeting last week when I feared for my safety.”
Near tears, Wynn put the argument for the plus-one adult coverage into context by showing how much money it would cost her to extend health care benefits for her adult son. As an alderman, Wynn’s monthly take-home pay is about $900. Covering her son under the city’s previous family option would cost her about $656 per month.
“Some of us don’t have a family that’s mommy-daddy, boy-girl, cat and dog,” she said. “Who in here that’s serving in my seat would vote against this? I don’t want to hurt a collection of people because we might not embrace the lifestyle of others. It’s just not fair.”
Wiseman attacked the board’s action Friday by calling it one not rooted in true policy merit since the expanded insurance option created no additional costs for the city.
Leaders, including Wynn, previously said the expansion was a way for employees to save money in a fiscal year that is not expected to yield across-the-board raises or cost-of-living adjustments for workers.
“As compared to last year, our employees have an opportunity to save $250-$330 per month on medical insurance premiums for their loved ones. In spite of the fact that the city bears no financial responsibility, this board amended its original approval of the insurance plan,” Wiseman wrote in Friday’s veto. “I cannot abide by a decision to deny any of our employees the opportunity to see to it that their loved ones can receive medical care when they are sick. It is an opportunity the city is fully capable of providing, and it costs the city nothing.”
Carver, Little, Perkins and Vaughn all repeatedly slammed Wiseman and Chief Administrative Officer Taylor Adams last week for, in their words, hiding information associated with the expansion before the board took it off Sept. 2’s consent agenda, discussed it and unanimously approved it.
Wiseman and Adams rebuffed those claims, saying the same information they had on the matter was given to aldermen prior to that meeting.
A two-page letter from Sept. 2’s meeting is present on the city’s website and shows Cox Consulting Services Inc. acknowledged “domestic partnership eligibility” with all capitalized letters at the bottom of the first page.
The document was submitted to the city in late August and added to the Sept. 2 e-packet four days before the meeting.
“‘Plus-one’ means just that: ‘plus-one,'” Wiseman countered to aldermen when they said he was hiding the policy’s full impact.
“Clearly it was in their packets, but they did not bring it up. I took that to mean it wasn’t an issue,” he added after last week’s meeting.
Tuesday’s agenda also includes public appearances by University Baptist Church Pastor Bert Montgomery, who spoke in favor of the city’s expansion to LGBT partners last week, and Joesph Stone, the pastor of Second Baptist Church of Starkville.
It is believed Wynn attends Second Baptist Church of Starkville.
Friday’s veto marks the second such time Wiseman has fought to overturn board action this term. His first veto came right after the current administration took office and aldermen removed former CAO Lynn Spruill from her position without discussing the merits of the personnel change.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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