Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/207831
Sarasota News Leader November 8, 2013 The Clerk of Court and County Comptroller will handle the registry, including setting a fee schedule to cover the costs, according to a staff memo provided to the County Commission. Additionally — at the request of public speakers — the commission voted unanimously to change the language in one section of the ordinance to make it clear that a surviving domestic partner would have the right to make funeral and burial decisions after the other partner's death. "I think that's consistent with the intent of the [proposed] ordinance," County Attorney Stephen DeMarsh said when questioned on that point by Commissioner Christine Robinson. Robinson made the motion to approve the change. PASSAGE URGED Among the speakers who addressed the commission during the Nov. 6 public hearing on the ordinance was Mary Meeks, a constitutional attorney in Orlando who helped draft the domestic partnership ordinance in that Page 26 city about three years ago, she said, at the mayor's request. Since then, she told the County Commission, she has worked with a number of other municipalities on similar action. "And [I] have literally seen thousands of Florida families register and be able to obtain those very important protections" provided by such laws. Those partners ranged from couples with children," she added, to older people who had been together "30, 40 and even 50 or more years." Meeks pointed out, "I have also seen the great pain and suffering that has been [endured] by individuals in this state who have not had these protections when they needed them." Vice Chairman Charles Hines took exception to one point Meeks made in her remarks. She told the board, "The rights provided by a domestic partnership registry cannot be duplicated by legal documents. That is a complete and utter falsehood. No power of attorney or other legal contractual document can give you the legal right to make sure your partner is in the hospital room with you" or allow a domestic partner to make funeral and burial decisions. (From left) Commissioner Joe Barbetta asks a question as Commissioner Christine Robinson and Chairwoman Carolyn Mason listen. Photo by Norman Schimmel