At about 11p - midnight last night, the Austin City Council voted 5-2 to
provide domestic partnership benefits for City of Austin employees.
Despite several hours of public hearings, it seems like the council had
pretty much made up their minds at the onset that this was a good thing.
Those voting FOR the benefits were (please excuse spellings):

   Bridget Shae
   Gus Garcia
   Jackie Goodman
   Max Nofziger
   Dr. Camile Barnet (city manager)

Those voting against:
   Dr. Charles Urdy (mayor pro-tem)
   Ronnie Reynolds

The Mayor, Bruce Todd, also supported the benefits, but only votes in case
of a tie.  Dr. Urdy, interestingly enough, was not at the hearings while I
was there (until about 8pm).  Dr. Urdy is also the only African-American on
the city council.  On a side note, Reynolds appears to be just plain
stpuid- in an unrelated question about benefits, a city staff member and
the city manager spent about 20 minutes trying to explain to him a rather
simple difference between unpaid medical leave and a leave of absence
(one pays medical benefits, the other doesn't).  While those in the audience
were beginning to laugh, it also became obvious that the city manager was
doing her best not to crack up.

I contacted CNN, who at first didn't seem to be interested, but may be
carrying it - so keep your eyes open.  If anyone in Texas has seen it,
I'd like to know; Austin is the first city in Texas to grant DP benefits.
 
======================================================================
lazarus@wixer.bga.com    
Michael Lax, 12514 Esplanade St., #B, Austin, TX  78727-4409
512.837.1596 (h), 512.836.9715 (fax)