Republican turned Democrat Long Beach City Councilman Robert Garcia is happy to tell you what to do. After his election to the city council he immediately got down to business to squash all those scofflaws smoking at bus stops.
Now Garcia has a new personal crusade. According to LBReport.com, he wants Long Beach to coerce businesses doing business with the city to give benefits to domestic partnerships. Garcia, who is gay, not that there is anything wrong with that, believes that this is more important the contracting with the qualified lowest bidder.
Of course, taxpayers will pay for the benefits as companies that do business with the city charge more to cover their costs. Other cities that have done this like San Francisco and LA aren’t shining examples of fiscal responsibility.
These ordinances aren’t about the money, they are about forcing their view about homosexuality on business OR making sure people of faith don’t have opportunity to bid on government contracts.
The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce is neutral. They have to be or else. If the issue was forcing businesses to use E-verify to check immigration status or accept wage conditions, the Chamber would highlight the problem. But oppose a mandate about Gay and Lesbians. No way
They are about official government sponsored intolerance, not that homosexual activists find any thing wrong with that.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Mike,
I could not agree more with your view. The role of government is to serve “All” with in its constituency with out injecting harm to others. And this political practice would certainly inject harm to the community.
What I find most disturbing, is the fact that the L.B. Chamber of Commerce is not standing up for business. I recommend the Chamber Board members read its Bylaws and hopefully they will re-discover what the purpose of a Chamber Commerce is. Hopefully, they will also be encouraged to fulfill their true purpose, which is representing their constituency and not surrender to politician with a political social agenda.