DOMESTIC PARTNERS PREVAIL ON EQUAL HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS
Palm Beach County Human Rights Council

(West Palm Beach, Florida) The Palm Beach County Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) ruled this week that the School District of Palm Beach County discriminated against two lesbian employees with domestic partners by charging excessive health insurance premiums.

"School District administrators have been under the mistaken belief for years that they did not have to comply with the county's equal employment ordinance," said Rand Hoch, President of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. "Hopefully these two rulings will now put an end to their discriminatory practices."

For more than twenty years the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council has been lobbying for GLBT-inclusive laws.

The County's equal employment ordinance now prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, familial status, and marital status.

After extensive lobbying by the Council, the School District of Palm Beach County began offering employees the opportunity to purchase health insurance for their domestic partners in 2005.

However, instead of charging the same premiums being paid by married employees, the district charged employees with domestic partners a minimum of $4,200 per year more for the same coverage.

To no one's surprise, only a dozen of the district's 21,000 employees paid the excessive premiums to insure their partners.

"For two years the Council repeatedly advised individual school board members and district administrators that charging higher premiums was discriminatory," said Hoch. "Despite our best efforts, the they refused to equalize the premiums."

Left with no other choice, in 2007 the Council's Board of Directors decided to initiate litigation and began searching for potential plaintiffs.

Signs at the Council's booth at PrideFest 2007 asked "Do you work for the School District?".

"Dozens of school district employees stopped by our booth to ask about the sign," said Hoch. "When we found Barbara Dilthey and Marlo Tamayo, we knew we had the perfect plaintiffs."

Dilthey had been paying excessive premiums to insure her partner since January, 2007.

After Tamayo and her partner saw the premiums for domestic partner coverage was during open enrollment in 2006, it was obvious that the extra $4,200 would bust the family budget. She declined to purchase the insurance through the school district.

Within a few days, Council representatives persuaded Dilthey and Tamayo to file charges of discrimination against the school district. The women and their partners were then introduced to ACLU cooperating attorney Jim Green, who has worked closely with the Council for decades.

Within a few days, Green filed charges against the school district with the OEO on behalf of the two school district employees.

Shortly after the charges were filed, the school board voted to equalize the premiums. However, they refused to refund the previously paid excessive premiums to the dozen employees.

Throughout the litigation the school district maintained that it was not bound by the county ordinance and that no discrimination had occurred. However, in its opinions, the OEO found no merit in the school district's defenses.

Ruling in favor of Dilthey and Tamayo, the OEO determined in that the school district was in violation of the Palm Beach Equal Employment Ordinance, which makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate in the provision of employment benefits, regardless of an employee's marital status.

"Hopefully the school district will now send $4,200 checks to Barbara Dilthey and similarly situated employees, " said Hoch.

In the event that does not occur, Tamayo and Dilthey will consider filing suit against the school district in circuit court.

"The School Board can't say with one hand that they support equal benefits, while simultaneously using the other hand to shun their employees," said Green. "We are thrilled at the OEO's decision, and will be here to assist both Tamayo and Dilthey in their efforts to achieve equality."

The Council's battle with the school board on domestic partner health insurance is not yet over.

"While the school district allows married employees to insure their children, employees are not permitted to purchase health insurance for their domestic parners' children. said Hoch.

The Council will continue its lobbying efforts to change this.

But if the school board continues to refuse to insure these children, the Council's plaintiff recruitment sign will be posted at PrideFest next March. [10/13/08]

UPDATE: Tornadoes and Flooding in the Plains

State College, Pa. -- June 10, 2008 -- AccuWeather.com reported earlier today that severe storms erupting tonight over the Plains would not only bring new concerns for flooding, but would also spawn tornadoes.



Major cities in path of potentially destructive storms tonight include: Omaha, Topeka, Des Moines, Minneapolis and Wichita. On Thursday, the system and the same concerns will shift into the Midwest and middle Mississippi Valley. Areas likely to be targeted by the storms Thursday include: Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Tulsa. 

"We expect this activity to continue at least until midnight over the Plains," AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Feerick said. "So far, there are 28 reported tornadoes from Minnesota to North Central Kansas. There are some feisty storms out there, so we can expect that number to double or even triple by the end of the night."

Feerick said there have been two confirmed tornado reports in Douglas County west of Omaha. Local Iowa press has reported that a tornado hit a scout camp in western Iowa, injuring 40 with possible fatalities.

Daytime heating added to the instability over the Plains. Tonight, severe storms containing heavy rain, large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes will erupt from western Oklahoma to Minnesota.

State College, Pa. -- June 4, 2008 -- AccuWeather.com reports the first heat wave of 2008 will begin on Friday across the Northeast. The air mass that will enter the region is the same one that produced record heat over the southern Plains during the past several days.

A relatively seasonable air mass will be in place on Thursday, even cooler than normal over coastal areas of New England, but a warm front will open the floodgates and allow heat and humidity to pour over the region. It remains to be seen how many records will fall in the Northeast, but it looks like most areas will have heat through the weekend and into early next week.



A heat bubble is already gripping the southern Plains and Desert Southwest. These two regions will also have to endure winds gusting past 45 mph at times today. The high winds have prompted the issuance of wind advisories.



The strongest wind gusts will be reserved for the afternoon and evening hours across the Desert Southwest. Motorists should be prepared for blowing dust to dangerously lower visibility in a short period of time. Red flag warnings are in effect to warn residents of the elevated fire danger that also exists.