Last Thursday afternoon, members of the Kansas City Police Department received an e-mail with the subject line: "Police Budget Update." The "Extra Daily Informant" explained how the department is going to make ends meet with a $15 million cut to the budget that begins May 1.
Chief Jim Corwin, the memo noted, had tapped a 12-person task force earlier in the day to study the numbers and make recommendations to the full Board of Police Commissions later this month. In bold letters, the Daily Informant emphasized: "The following are only examples of some of the proposals. Nothing has been decided."
Among the cost-cutting possibilities: keeping empty more than 80 vacant positions, holding off on purchasing new vehicles and eliminating the department's "10th holiday" (the day after Thanksgiving). The e-mail also suggested certain perks, like tuition reimbursement and clothing allowances, are on the chopping block. But, the memo stated, "Both the Chief and Board voiced opposition to cutting any of these benefits."
The chief and the board have already been decisive about cutting some benefits, though: those of the department's gay and lesbian members.
According to the very last lines of the two-page memo, a "special meeting" of the board was convened on April 1. At that meeting, the group decided to eliminate health insurance coverage for the domestic partners of gay department members. The advisory noted that the cut would affect eight people and save the KCPD $421,293.
Rich Lockhart, a KCPD spokesman, said it's not only staff with a same-sex partner at home who are feeling the pinch. Health insurance premiums are going up for everyone in the department, he said. "And that was one area that allowed us to save that much money and affected so few people. It was a decision the board made," Lockhart says of the domestic partner benefits.
That decision hasn't gone unnoticed in the gay community. Nettie Alford, vice president of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Kansas City, says the quiet move at the police department is out of step with a nation moving toward equality for gay and lesbian couples.
"Then we see the shortsightedness of our own city government, where we have typically been encouraged," Alford says. "To have domestic partner benefits offered, it's so much easier for members of the community to work for the police department and have normal lives."
Disappointed at the KCPD's decision, Alford says, community members are reaching out to city officials, including Mayor Mark Funkhouser (who serves on the Board of Police Commissioners), to discuss alternative means to deal with financial woes and still restore full coverage to everyone on KCPD's payroll.
"Is this the direction the city wants to go?" Alford says. "The City Council seems to be moving in a different direction, one toward fairness and equality and then, for the Board of Police Commissioners to just dump eight families, remove health insurance for eight families, is this really how the city wants to handle budget shortfalls?"
We'll keep you posted on developments.
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Sounds like a good idea to me. Doesn't at all sound like discrimination it just so happens to be the Spiritually, Morally & Ethically right thing to do...
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I have put further thought into this. Saving $421K is good, but if the goal is to save money, then it would be better to cut the insurance coverage to married partners and keep the insurance coverage for domestic partners. Saving millions of dollars certainly is better than saving thousands.
And To WHATEVER: Since Gay people may not legally marry in Missouri, this measure does discriminate against gays. The straight domestic partners can remedy their situation by marrying. The gay domestic partners have no legal recourse.
And you really have to love how Carolyn twisted the facts and quotes to make it look like the police department was only cutting benefits to discriminate against gay officers. Carolyn you really should write for the Star, that kind of biased journalism fits in there.
I will repeat myself on two issues. First, it does suck that 8 police employees lost health insurance for their partner/significant other.
Second, the article is still a load of crap.
First of all, it was domestic partner coverage. Not exclusively for gay or lesbian cops. Of the eight employees affected, six were in straight relationships and two were in gay. The employee still gets coverage under the group plan at the same price as every other employee but their partner/significant other are no longer eligible so don't whine about a gay cop's life being worth less.
Nothing is missing. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of KC tacked on an extra $421,000 to KCPD's overall plan simply to allow KCPD to offer domestic partner coverage. Ask Blue Cross what their logic is behind that kind of BS premium.
Is it BS that Blue Cross charges that? Sure it is. Is cutting it out a sound fiscal decision for the taxpayers? Sure it is. $421,000 would keep ten trainees in the academy. Get the chip off your shoulder, this isn't the police department discriminating against anyone, it is the insurance company doing so. And by the way, two very dear friends of mine are affected by the cut. The police employee gets to keep her coverage and her partner has to find hers elsewhere. And guess what, they don't feel discriminated against, they recognize it for what it is.
To 'WHATEVER'
The numbers do seem to be a bit on the unbelievable side, 52K per person for insurance coverage? I am guessing that there is something missing in this story. But aside from that, there is a principle of equality involved. Does a gay cop put his life on the less any less so than a straight cop? Certainly money could be saved by cutting health insurance coverage to Gays, or to Blacks, Jews, Women, etc. But it is morally wrong to ask others to make a sacrifice that you are not willing to make for yourself.
Eight members of the police department. $421,000. That is $52,000 per employee. How is it the police department's fault that the insurance company charges that much. And why should the taxpaying public foot the bill for that kind of coin? Your article is a load of crap. That is nothing more than a sound business decision.
Makes you wonder how the KCPD treat other minorities/second-class citizen (on and off the beat).
$421,293, thats it? were going to make a big deal out of that? I am sure the KCPD have better things to do than cut benefits from people.
Go Nettie Alford! I, for one, am disgusted that the issue of discriminating against eight families is somehow more justifiable than tuition reimbursement and clothing allowances.
Shame on Corwin and his 12-member task force who came up with this bogus information and the unexplainable "$421,293".
No, I am not one who will ever work for the Police Department, but if you're fixing to make budget cuts, then how about taking away everyone's health insurance benefits. That certainly seems fair now, doesn't it?
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