First District councilmember Robert Garcia and staff have worked for almost two months on the Equal Benefits Ordinance he proposed this morning, and it took less than two minutes for people to begin misunderstanding it.

The Equal Benefits Ordinance (EBO), which Garcia has placed on the July 14 council agenda, would require most companies doing business with the City of Long Beach to offer the same spousal benefits packages to all employees, straight or gay. If the spouse of a married employee receives benefits, then the legally registered domestic partner of a gay employee must receive benefits, too. That’s it.

The Press-Telegram was the first to post a story on the EBO—based on Garcia’s press release—this morning, and its readers began convoluting and misinterpreting this simple proposal almost immediately. Confused and angry, people started calling his office, too.

“People seem to think that the Equal Benefits Ordinance will force companies to hire more gay employees or to begin offering spousal benefits … or something,” Garcia said, calling the District Weekly to clarify an earlier conversation after the shit started hitting the fan. “The ordinance would simply close a loophole.”

City staff has indicated that the loophole can be closed without significant expense, too, says Garcia.

“The change would boil down to one more question that applicants must answer on the regular Request for Proposal process that the city already has in place for contracts,” he says. “And compliance would be determined as part of the same audits that are already in place.”

The ordinance would allow for some exceptions to be made by the city manager, such as in cases of public emergency, small contracts and vendors and other similar circumstances.  The ordinance would also not apply to businesses that do not offer spousal benefits. The ordinance only applies to businesses that do business with the city.

Garcia heralds the EBO as “historic,” but that’s only true as far as Long Beach history is concerned. The councilmember’s own press release acknowledges that “the state of California has an EBO in place, as do other large cities including Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Minneapolis.”

In some ways, that makes the proposal even more important.

“We are thrilled that Councilmember Garcia has proposed this historic ordinance,” said Kimberly Woods, Executive Director of the LGBT Center in Long Beach, in Garcia’s press release.  “The LGBT community is united in supporting this important measure.”

“Long Beach is an internationally recognized leader in equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community,” said Second District councilmember Suja Lowenthal—who is co-sponsoring the proposal—in Garcia’s press release. “We need to show leadership when it comes to equality for all.”

Historic or not, Randy Gordon, CEO of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, wasn’t quite as excited about the Equal Benefits Ordinance. He issued a press release that kind of hemmed and hawed and then announced that he didn’t have an opinion, either way. Here’s how Gordon put it.

“The Chamber supports Councilmember Robert Garcia’s aggressive action relative to his beliefs so early in his term. However, we understand that an EBO is a trend in many cities with wide support and also has the needed support of Long Beach City Council to pass. The Chamber likewise understands that business is simply unable to sustain increased governmental expense requirements in the current recessionary environment. Therefore, the Chamber will remain neutral and will not take a position on Councilmember Garcia’s Equal Benefits Ordinance.”

For more information on the proposal, including the facts of the plan and to find out what other cities are doing, log on to: www.robertgarcia.com.