Goldberg to Seek Benefits for Unmarried Partners : Rights: Proposal would allow city workers who have lived with their mates for at least one year to obtain insurance for them and their dependents.

Calling it “a matter of simple equity,” Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg plans today to propose a policy that would grant unmarried domestic partners of city employees the same health benefits that husbands and wives now receive.

Goldberg’s proposal would allow city workers who have lived with a partner for at least a year to register with the city to obtain medical and dental benefits for the partner and his or her dependent children.

The law would apply to heterosexual and homosexual couples.

The first-year councilwoman said she became aware that only married couples were eligible for benefits when she received her benefit application package and found no place to enroll her long-time partner.

“The city should be a model of non-discriminatory practices,” Goldberg said. “We should lead. I was surprised when I got here that this was not already done.”

A 1987 city survey found that 4.2% of city employees live with partners they are not married to. National surveys have found that only about 1% of eligible municipal employees apply for domestic partner benefits, according to a study by the city Personnel Department.

In Los Angeles, that would mean about 520 employees would take advantage of the policy, at a cost of just over $1 million a year.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who plans to second the proposal, said the city must proceed regardless of the cost.

“It’s something that is right and sound public policy,” he said. “We have a number of employees who are not married but who have partners and their relationships are every bit as important to them. The time has come to recognize these individuals as families with hopes and aspirations just like everyone else’s.”

Neither Goldberg nor Yaroslavsky has identified a source of funding for the proposal.

If it approves the health benefits, Los Angeles will join several other cities, including San Francisco, Berkeley, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Seattle.

Los Angeles County last summer extended dental benefits to domestic partners.

The city of Los Angeles in 1989 took a first step toward recognizing unmarried couples when it granted bereavement and sick leave to domestic partners. So far, six of about 40 city employee unions have signed up. Of 14,000 employees in those unions, about 20 couples have registered with the city for sick time and bereavement benefits.

Goldberg, the first openly gay City Council member, said the medical benefits proposal is the first she has made that will specifically benefit gays and lesbians.

But she said that heterosexuals are more likely to benefit.

“In the cities where it has been done, opposite-sex couples have benefited more. There are just more of them,” Goldberg said.