UC Regents Defy Wilson, OK Gay Partner Benefits

The University of California Board of Regents handed Gov. Pete Wilson a major political defeat Friday with a cliffhanger vote extending health benefits to the partners of gay employees--an action the governor made an all-out attempt to block.

Wilson went so far as to hastily appoint three new regents this week--two on Friday--to shore up the number of opponents to the benefits proposal, which he condemned on legal and moral grounds, saying it “will devalue the institution of marriage.”

But in the end, Wilson fell one vote short and was undone by one of his appointees, Regent Velma Montoya, whom he named to the board in 1994. Clearly conflicted over the issue, she hemmed and hawed and then abstained from voting, thus allowing the proposal to pass 13-12. Without commenting, she quickly left the UCLA conference room where the regents were meeting.

Wilson was visibly upset after the vote, which affects an unknown number of employees in the UC system, including those at UC Irvine. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this at all,” he vowed, though not specifying what moves he might take.

He also took on critics who have accused him of using the university for political gain. “I’m always accused of playing politics,” the governor said, angrily dismissing the idea. “Cynicism is one of the smaller problems you encounter in public life.”

The board’s decision was met with sustained applause from gay and lesbian UC employees and student activists who had jammed into meetings over the past two days of debate. University faculty and staff have pushed for such extended benefits since 1981, arguing that it is only fair to give same-sex couples the same health coverage as married ones, because gay couples cannot legally marry--which until now has been a requirement to win coverage for a partner.

For some, it was a bittersweet victory.

“My partner of 11 years died of breast cancer last year,” said Dr. Rose Maly, an assistant professor of family medicine at UCLA. “She spent the last year of her life commuting an hour in traffic [to her own job] to keep her health benefits. She wouldn’t have had to do that if we had domestic benefits. It didn’t work out for her, but I’m hoping that it will be different for others.”

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Friday’s vote means that by the middle of next year, an unknown number of university employees who live with same-sex partners will be able to obtain medical, dental and vision care at an estimated cost of $1.9 million to $5.6 million a year--on top of the $400 million the university now spends on employee health care.

The new policy, UC officials said, will help them recruit and retain faculty they were losing to Stanford University, Harvard University, MIT, the University of Michigan and other schools that offer such benefits to same-sex partners.

The regents ordered further study of a related proposal to open married student housing to gay and lesbian couples.

For the governor, the vote on benefits was a setback made all the more significant by his aggressive and bare-knuckles attempt to defeat the measure. Wilson bent legislative rules, his critics said, and applied all of the force he could muster from his office Friday.

Opponents said the fact that he came up short will open him to charges that he is losing power as a lame duck and that he is again attempting to boost his popularity by using the university as a high-profile political platform, as he did in 1995 in pushing for an end to affirmative action in admissions.

The governor also used up valuable goodwill with Democrats in the Legislature, who had urged him not to seat the three new regents before legislators had more time to consider the selections.

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) said he views Wilson’s action as an attempt to seek favor with conservative Republicans for a possible presidential race in 2000. But he predicted that the governor will pay a price when his new appointments come before the Senate for confirmation. The appointees are allowed to sit as voting regents for as long as a year without approval of the Legislature.

“The single most important characteristic we look for when evaluating appointees to the Board of Regents is independence from political pressure,” Lockyer said. “All three of the members hastily appointed by the governor this week promptly failed to demonstrate any. So I am very skeptical about their chances of winning Senate confirmation.”

In Republican circles, some conservatives downplayed the governor’s loss and said he will still achieve a political boost by having taken a strong stand for family values. “Pete Wilson’s colors shone brilliantly,” said the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, leader of the Orange County-based Traditional Values Coalition.

“He has drawn a line in the sand and defined the issue in a moral way like nobody else.”

But others welcome the decision.

“I think it’s a wonderful message to send to the employees as well as all the students,” said Doug Weiss, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County. “They are truly walking the walk rather than just talking the talk.”

He said the move by the regents is even more significant than when private companies such as Disney and IBM began offering domestic-partner benefits.

“Universities have more often than not been in the forefront of change,” he said. “Here’s an institution that provides leadership to thousands of residents. As an institution of higher learning, they have now led by example. It sends an incredibly resonant message.”

While recognition of domestic partners for health benefits is increasing, Weiss noted same-sex couples still face roadblocks regarding joint tax returns, visitation rights at hospitals, and even in things as mundane as joint car-insurance policies.

And while they await a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Hawaii law that sanctions same-sex marriages--which could give them status equal to that enjoyed by heterosexual married couples--gays and lesbians continue to push for more actions like the one the Board of Regents took Friday.

“We are not asking for preferential treatment,” Weiss said. “As law-abiding, taxpaying, productive citizens of the state, we are simply asking for the same benefits provided other couples under the law. Not more, not less, but exactly the same.”

Friday’s meeting opened with the surprise announcement that Wilson had made two appointments to the 26-member board that oversees the nine-campus UC system: John Hotchkis, a 65-year-old Republican and mutual-fund manager from Pasadena who has contributed handsomely to Wilson’s political campaigns over the years, and Carol Chandler, a 52-year-old former schoolteacher and farmer from Selma, who served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Earlier in the week, he appointed Ralph Ochoa, a Sacramento lobbyist who in 1994 headed a group of Democrats supporting Wilson for governor.

Wilson’s last-minute appointees, who filled the only vacancies on the board, all voted against extending benefits to gay partners.

Highlighting the escalating fight over the issue, every regent showed up for Friday’s vote, including three statewide Democratic leaders who automatically sit on the board: Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante and Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin. All three voted in favor of the benefits.

Much of Friday’s discussion focused on the potential legal fallout from extending health benefits to same-sex couples but not to unmarried heterosexual couples.

Wilson and other conservatives argued that the policy invited costly lawsuits because it violates state law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual preference. Although unmarried homosexual couples would qualify, they noted, their heterosexual counterparts would not.

They pointed to a recent decision by the state labor commissioner, who sided with a heterosexual couple’s complaint that the city of Oakland’s health coverage for same-sex couples should be expanded to include them.

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James E. Holst, the university system’s top attorney, agreed that the proposal carried legal risks. Following his recommendation, the regents expanded the proposal so that health benefits will also cover an employee’s financially dependent sister, brother or parent who lives with that employee.

That way, Holst said, UC’s policy makes a distinction not on the basis of sexual preference, but on the basis of who can legally marry.

That would rule out heterosexual couples because they can legally marry and qualify for the benefits that way--while gay and lesbian couples do not have that option.

UC officials said that adding dependent family members will cost the state only a small amount.

Regents Ward Connerly, Gray Davis and others said they plan to resolve the legal issue completely by asking the board in January to further expand its health benefits to include unmarried heterosexual couples. In all--with the extra costs of Friday’s action included--the university would pay an extra $10.4 million to $20.3 million per year in benefits, officials said.

UC officials stressed that they have no way of determining how many of their 126,000 employees will opt for such benefits.

In order to qualify under the proposal adopted Friday, gay and lesbian partners--or the blood relatives--must have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months, show proof of mutual financial support and sign a document that they are committed to a long-term relationship.

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Steve Carney.