Domestic partners of Pierce County employees will be eligible for the same benefits as county employee spouses under a proposal announced yesterday by Executive John W. Ladenburg.

Ladenburg plans to submit a proposed domestic partners benefit ordinance to the County Council in the near future, and County Councilmember Calvin Goings has agreed to sponsor it. “We’re joining the many cities and counties around the country that already provide benefits to employee partners,” Ladenburg said. “It puts us on equal footing when it comes to attracting and keeping good employees.”

Goings said, “Domestic partners deserve equal treatment. This is an issue of fairness.”

Ladenburg’s proposal calls for extending medical, dental and sick leave benefits to domestic partners for both same and opposite sex relationships. Conditions are that the employee and partner share the same regular and permanent residence, have a close personal relationship, are jointly responsible for basic living expenses, are not married to anyone, are each 18 years of age or older, are not related by blood closer than would bar marriage in Washington State, were mentally competent to consent to contract when the domestic partnership began, and are each other’s sole domestic partner and are responsible for each other’s common welfare.

To apply for benefits, an employee and his or her partner would be required to sign an affidavit of eligibility indicating the knowledge that when the partnership ends, the person who is no longer eligible will be removed from the benefit roll within 30 days. The county’s Human Resources Department has no estimate of how many domestic partners would be eligible for the proposed benefits.

In moving forward with the proposal, the executive plans to work with the unions representing county employees.