Same-sex marriage: No kayakers at Falls City Hall

Cuyahoga Falls to tear down two dams next year; kayakers eager to tackle rapids unseen in 200 years  - Beacon Journal headline, December 11, 2011

Unfortunately, there aren't enough public  officials  in the Falls who are eager to tackle more meaningful  matters unseen in 200 years.

I refer to the defeat of a initiative to award a same-sex married couple a family rate at the Natatorium, a modest discount for the spouses, one of whom - if you can imagine that!  -  is a wounded Iraqi veteran
who was prepared to have his head shot off so that the Natatorium and other venues around America could live in peace.

The controversy  has plodded forward for months in what has become Republican Mayor Don Robart's Tea Party Central town somewhere just north of Akron.   It would have passed 6-5 on City Council , with all six Democrats supporting it.  But when the Mayor was heard to threaten a veto, it would have needed 8 votes to override his veto.  There was no hope of siphoning  two from the Republican side.

Tim Gorbach, the Democratic chairman of the Parks and Recreation Board, which oversees the Natatorium, tried various methods to create a compromise that would allow the couple to get the family rate.  But again, when the board met on Thursday, it was was defeated, 3-2, by the Republican majority opposing it.

I talked to two of the opponents on the board, Dick Sebastian and Debbie Ritzinger, both of whom insisted that neither  religion nor the mayor influenced their decisions, although both seemed less eager to preclude the mayor. They agreed that it was all about the money  the city would lose by extending the family rate to a same-sex couple.  But if they were a straight-sex couple, wouldn't the same cost factor apply at the family rate?  Would somebody please do the math for me?

Before your reach for you calculator, allow me to put it this way:  The only difference in the rates ($130 annually) was that one couple was gay.

In his haste to circle his own wagon, Robart first said the state's ban on same-sex marriages prevented the Falls from allowing the discount.  When his own law director said the discount would not be a problem under state law - Akron and Medina, for example would not prohibit equal rates - the mayor then switched to the cost factor.  But I wonder about that, particularly when he nearly soared off the stage at a recent Tea Party rally by praising the Teabaggers as the  "social, fiscal and moral conscience of America." Really,  Mayor?

There is further irony here in that the Falls is revving up for a bicentennial celebration in which there will be a lot of chest-pounding about the  whitewater beauties of the town's history.    Here's what the bicentennial commission has to say about it:

"The mission of the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Bicentennial celebration is to promote awareness to our rich heritage, encourage citizens and business leaders to plan, participate and sponsor events and activities, recognizing 200 years of the history and growth of  Cuyahoga Falls.

In view of the dismally regressive mentality at City Hall on the Natatorium , wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it a Centennial celebration instead and wait for the mayor's successor to bring the town forward to the 21st Century?  

Who's all wet at the Falls Natatorium?

WHEN MY JOB led our family to a home in Cuyahoga Falls on an unpaved street in 1968, I often encountered a description of the town in a sarcastic term, as in, "So you moved from Columbus to Caucasian Falls?" Empirically, it didn't take long for me to figure that one out. However, history eventually overtook the term. Even the street was eventually paved after we moved several blocks away and finally to another suburb.

But now the Falls may end up with another stain on its image. Beginning with its long-sitting Repubican Mayor, Don Robart, the city has yet to grant a request by a same-sex married couple, one of whom is - good grief! - a wounded Iraqi veteran. The request hardly is apocalyptic. The couple merely asked that it be granted the lower family rate at the city's Natatorium.

Since Day One, it has become more confusing in what the mayor and his team are talking about. Robart offered his excuse as necessary because Ohio law does not recognize same-sex marriages. (Obviously, other Ohio venues who recognize such marriages in their rate structure have yet to understand this.) Next, the mayor insisted that a change would throw the Natatorium's member rates out of whack. That held up long enough for Thursday's meeting of the Falls Park and Recreation Board, which turned down the couple's request 3-2.

It was then that the smoke and mirrors disappeared in the controversy. Board member Dick Sebastian, who voted with the majority, told the Beacon Journal:

"Biblically speaking, I know a lot of people would be upset if it's yanked out."

You bet it's Biblically speaking, particularly when a Baptist minister and 18 of his flock showed up to protest any change. Forget the barrier of Ohio law mentioned by the mayor (Law Director Paul Janis had opined that no law would forbid the Board from modifying the rates);. forget the out-of-whack rate structure; this issue is turning solely on Biblespeak. To clarify, the Baptist minister and his friends have every right to show up and protest as concerned citizens. But the Board had every right to reject him.

Board chairman Tim Gorbach, a Democrat, one of the two members in the minority, was disappointed by the outcome. When I called him, he said he would detail his position on the rate structure in an email.

Here it is in its entirety:

Moving to the Household rate format would result in about $48,000 in annual revenue given our current membership. That is a little more than one pct. of our total annual revenue at the Natatorium.

To minimize this impact doesn't have to mean raising rates across the board. It could mean reducing expenses elsewhere with very little if any impact on our members. For example, we have been paying down our debt at an accelerated rate. This is a great thing, but not something that has to be done. Given the extremely low rates on our short term debt, it wouldn't cost us much in reduced interest savings. This is only one of the many options that unfortunately will not be explored due to the majority's decision to remain the same.

Epilogue: There's still a chance that Falls City Council will come up with a plan to spare the city of further embarrassment. Until it does, could anyone blame Coty May, the injured soldier, and his caregiving spouse Shane if they might be wondering now which America Coty was risking his life for in Iraq. Certainly not the one that denies them a rate change at the Natatorium.