The Brentwood Police And Fire Fighters’ Pension Plan is reviewed every five years by a pension board, and the Brentwood Board of Aldermen vote to accept the changes or not.
Along with housekeeping items like adjusting the tax rate and catching typos, the pension board recommended going along with the IRS definition of a spouse for insurance purposes.
“If you’re married, even though the spouse is the same sex that you are, that person is going to get the benefit if you die,” pension attorney Larry Sewell said at the board of alderman meeting Monday.
Ward 3 Alderman Andy Leahy pointed out that the decision is in conflict with Missouri state law.
Mayor Pat Kelly said someone could get married in a state where it is legal and move here, and the city would have to abide by that.
Leahy said in Mississippi a same-sex marriage in another state isn’t recognized in their state. “It complies with the tax code, but not state law,” he said.
It came down to weighing which side had less risk of getting the city sued, though Sewell called it a lose-lose proposition.
“We felt that we would be at more risk by not changing it now,” Kelly said. “The chances of somebody suing because we were giving the benefit is less than… it’s 99 percent sure that if we didn’t give the benefit we would be sued.”
Kelly said before it ever becomes an issue in Brentwood it would be resolved by the Supreme Court, and because the plan is reviewed every five years it’s best to make the change now.
There was an attempt to change the definition of spouse back to the traditional definition before the vote, but only Leahy and Ward 2 Alderman Lee Wynn voted for the change. The vote to accept the pension plan as presented passed, with Leahy and Wynn voting against it.
As a man who grew up in Brentwood, I am glad to see my home town adopting this policy.