Do your duty, Delgadillo says

Government employees should not be allowed to excuse themselves from officiating at same-sex marriages because of their personal beliefs, according to City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.

On Monday, Delgadillo urged the county Board of Supervisors to order Acting Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan to compel employees to perform same-sex marriages even if they oppose the concept.

“Mr. Logan has no legal standing to grant county employees the authority or ability to choose which marriages they wish to officiate at based upon personal views regarding an applicant’s sexual orientation,” Delgadillo wrote to board Chairwoman Yvonne B. Burke.

Delgadillo’s office also said he would ask Secretary of State Debra Bowen to ensure that county clerks throughout the state not allow similar exemptions.

Logan told The Times on Friday, the day after the state Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriages, that a manager in his department raised the possibility that some on his staff would be uncomfortable officiating at such marriages. Logan indicated then he would try to accommodate such employees.

“I would not expect that we would put employees who were uncomfortable in that situation in a position to do that,” Logan said Friday. He added that no employee had expressed such concerns, however.

Today, Logan is scheduled to report to supervisors on the status of plans for same-sex marriages to proceed.

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-- Jean-Paul Renaud