STARKVILLE — Mississippi’s eventual recognition of marriage equality means additional spouses of city and county workers will be eligible to receive health insurance, officials confirmed Friday.
Once the state begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex partners and recognizing similar documents previously granted to couples by other states, employees can then opt to extend benefits to their spouses, said Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman and Oktibbeha County Administrator Emily Garrard.
Both government entities have insurance policies that grant such coverage to couples in marriages recognized by the state. Domestic partnerships between same- or opposite-sex partners — couples that opt not to join in a state-recognized marriage — remain excluded from those same benefits.
“We’ve always gone by Mississippi law, and we’ll continue to follow Mississippi law,” said County Administrator Emily Garrard. “When the law finally changes and someone in a legal partnership comes in and requests (insurance for their spouse), we’ll insure them.”
Starkville experienced fiery public reactions in 2014 when aldermen unanimously voted to extend “plus-one” insurance coverage to adults of workers’ choosing — a designation that included unmarried and same-sex partners — but later amended its policy to only those within state-recognized marriages.
The issue was settled after Mayor Parker Wiseman successfully vetoed the limitation, but aldermen repealed the policy and the city’s equality resolution — a nondiscrimination statement that included language protecting lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender employees — behind closed doors in January.
That action and the grounds the board used to go into executive session yielded multiple Miss. Open Meetings Act complaints that have yet to be resolved.
“(Once the state recognizes marriage equality) … the effect of that on city health insurance is coverage is then available to all spouses in legal marriage, whether it’s an opposite- or same-sex couple,” Wiseman said. “It doesn’t change the status for domestic partnerships. There are still people in long-term relationships that, for one reason or another, have chosen not to get married. City employees living in that situation will not be able to provide health benefits to their partner.
“I still believe that the plus-one adult coverage that includes coverage for domestic partnerships is a better insurance policy for our employees,” he added. “Even in the aftermath of (Friday’s) decision, we still have employees living in those situations, and the program is available at no additional costs to the city that would provide the coverage for their loved ones.”
Following Starkville’s insurance squabble, Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn led an attempt to fire Tim Cook, the city’s long-term agent of record, and replace him with the Integrity Group’s Debbie Jaudon.
No reason was given as to why Jaudon was brought forward or how many other external candidates were informed of the possible vacancy.
Wynn previously targeted costly insurance fees passed to workers as the reason driving the change but in February said Cox knowingly withheld “crucial information the board needed to make an informed decision on the policy.”
As presented to aldermen last year, Cox’s insurance proposal for Starkville clearly acknowledged “domestic partnership eligibility” with all capitalized letters at the bottom of the first page.
The board ultimately approved Wynn’s proposal, but Wiseman vetoed the matter. An override failed to emerge in March.
Aldermen, however, approved a process seeking proposals from entities looking to become the city’s next insurance agent that same month.
Chief Administrative Officer Taylor Adams confirmed the proposals will be brought before the board at its July 7 regularly scheduled meeting.
Although Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional across the nation, the ability for homosexual couples to obtain the marriage licenses in Louisiana and Mississippi was put on hold Friday by the states’ respective attorneys general.
U.S District Judge Carlton Reeves previously issued a stay on a ruling overturning Mississippi’s ban, and state Attorney General Jim Hood said Friday that circuit clerks would not issue same-sex marriage licenses until the stay is ultimately lifted.
The office for Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell issued a statement Friday that said there was no legal requirement for issuing licenses to same-sex couples as it “has found nothing in today’s decision that makes the (U.S. Supreme Court’s) order effective immediately.”
The Campaign for Southern Equality — the organization that previously brought litigation against marriage bans — reported that some same-sex couples in Hattiesburg received marriage licenses from the Forrest County Circuit Clerk’s Office Friday before Hood’s order was received.
The organization also filed a motion in the Fifth Circuit Friday to immediately lift the stay.
“Same-sex couples in Mississippi cannot wait another day for the legal rights that they are now guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution,” said Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, CSE executive director, in a release.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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