Bellevue hit with bias complaint against gay workers

While many cities and towns across Washington offer health benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees, Bellevue has steadfastly refused to do so. On Tuesday, it got a bit of legal comeuppance.

Two city firefighters and a 911 dispatcher, all three of whom are involved in committed same-sex relationships, have filed a complaint accusing Bellevue of violating their rights by denying their partners health coverage and other benefits available to married employees.

		Karen Ducey / P-I
	From left, firefighters Faun Patzer and Larry deGroen are two of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by Tara Borelli of Lambda Legal against Bellevue. The city is accused of violating samesex couples' rights by denying them the same benefits as married couples.

For Larry deGroen, the breaking point came in December 2005, when his partner's father died and the couple flew to Detroit to attend the funeral. Heterosexual spouses would have been entitled to paid bereavement leave. But deGroen, who has worked for Bellevue since 1995, was not.

"Personally, I thought it was a clerical error," said the 45-year-old paramedic who was forced to compensate the city for his one day off by working a full overtime shift without pay.

"I felt betrayed," he said. "I've spent over 10 years fighting fires and doing my best to save lives as a paramedic for the city. But I felt like that meant nothing when I was penalized for being with my partner in his time of need."

Tara Borelli, a staff attorney for Lambda Legal who filed the complaint on behalf of deGroen and two other plaintiffs, said her clients had been discriminated against because of their sexual orientation -- as gays and lesbians, they are unable to marry in Washington state -- and were merely seeking equal pay for equal work.

"This is a simple matter of workplace fairness," she said. "Because our clients are not allowed to marry according to Washington law, they are categorically denied the family benefits extended to married city employees."

She noted that Bellevue's police and firefighter unions, as well as the Teamsters local, have repeatedly requested domestic-partner benefits from Bellevue -- only to be denied.

"During a time of rapidly escalating costs for health care and other employee benefits, the city has taken the position of trying to carefully control its costs and held the line on benefits other than those negotiated as part of the collective bargaining process," said Bellevue City Manager Steve Sarkozy, who is named a defendant in the complaint. Mayor Grant Degginger and Deputy Mayor John Chelminiak are also named.

"This issue has been brought up in negotiations," Sarkozy said. "But it has never been carried forcefully by our unions."

City attorney Lori Riordan acknowledged that Bellevue has never actually calculated how much it would cost to extend benefits to employees' domestic partners. Numerous municipalities in Washington -- including Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, Olympia and Kirkland -- do offer such plans and have found them to be a comparatively minimal expense, according to the complaint.

Faun Patzer, also a firefighter and paramedic, signed on out of exasperation with Bellevue's refusal to extend health insurance benefits to her partner of four years, Carrie Wurzburg.

A self-employed general contractor, Wurzburg, 37, has been unable to afford full coverage on her own and routinely skips checkups and breast exams -- despite a history of heart problems -- because regular doctor's visits are simply too expensive, Patzer said.

"It's a daily stress," Patzer, 44, explained. "And with the cost of insurance being so astronomical -- especially when I have the benefits -- it's pretty frustrating."

George Einsetler, a 13-year worker in the city's 911 dispatch unit, is a plaintiff in the complaint, which was filed Tuesday in King County Superior Court.

Once served, Bellevue officials will have 20 days to respond.