all right so this is from detective
Laurel Hester who's currently on medical
leave of absence because unfortunately
she has stage four cancer and she's
asking that in the event of her death
her pension benefits be assigned to her
partner a Stacie Andree Stacie Andree is
a woman correct correct I'm just trying
to wrap my mind around her being a
lesbian why she's so not like a lesbian
the contract we negotiated with the
police Union doesn't give detective
Hester the right to assign her benefits
to her roommate end of story
all right so motion to deny detective
Hester's request
well actually the domestic partnership
Act passed by the state legislature
extends benefits to same-sex partners of
state employees Hester's a county
employee but the law says we can assign
benefits to county employees right and
bankrupt the county oh come on oh come
on what people can make anybody their
partners and get benefits it's really
very hard form a domestic partnership
actually harder than marriage oh
nothing's harder than marriage
Brian the law you're talking about
violates the sanctity of marriage it
offends traditional values and in this
county that's political suicide she's
dying yes and that's a personal tragedy
and we deal with public policy here but
I move that we deny detective Hester's
request we should wish her the best and
tell her she's in our prayers all right
all in favor yes run Oh
upstanding we like our decisions to have
the authority of a unanimous vote it's
been our tradition for 150 years
yes
[Music]