Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer and his staff are taking big steps toward establishment of a domestic partner registry, and they want Orange County officials to walk alongside them.
City staff have written an ordinance establishing the registry which defines domestic partnership, outlines the registration process and provides an overview of protections provided within a domestic partnership that has been recognized by the city of Orlando. Those protections include hospital visitation, rights to health care decisions, correctional facility visitation, rights to funeral/burial decisions, guardianship and the right for both domestic partners to participate in the education of their children.
In May of this year, Dyer reached out to Orange County mayor Teresa Jacobs, encouraging her to lead the county in pursuing domestic partner registry at the same time as the city. The ordinance language has been sent to Mayor Jacobs' office, along with a memo describing the research steps taken by Chief Assistant City Attorney Amy Iennaco with the purpose of creating an ordinance that would satisfy the needs of both the city and the county.
The memo includes a recommendation for joint administration of the registry, stating that “addresses the needs of the greatest number of people while avoiding costly or inefficient processes or staffing, as well as duplicative and potentially conflicting substantive provisions.”
The memo also states that should the county pass on the ordinance at this time, the city will move forward with the registry anyway. It also addresses cost concerns, stating, “Any costs, administrative or otherwise, would be completely offset by revenues received from the registrations,” and legal concerns, stating, “The City's research and evaluation of the proposed registry determined that there were no legal impediments to implementing the registry as proposed.”
It concludes by asserting, “This partnership would provide protections to thousands of families and demonstrate our shared commitment to building a region that is competitive and innovative when it comes to attracting jobs,” and requesting that the county provide a response by Nov. 11, because the city plans to put the ordinance before the Orlando City Council in Dec.
Mayor Jacobs has just returned from a trade mission in Brazil. County chief of staff Graciela Noriega Jacoby said the city's ordinance has been passed onto their legal department “to do the due diligence,” and “after that vetting process, the legal department will provide a briefing and recommendations to Mayor Jacobs.”
When asked how long the legal review would take, Jacoby said that the attorney who will be assigned to the task is out of the office until Oct. 31 and when he returns, they will have a better idea of the time frame required.
