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Published: 6/6/2012 - Updated: 33 minutes ago

BY CLAUDIA BOYD-BARRETT BLADE STAFF WRITER

A clear victory for legislation to extend health-care benefits to the domestic partners of city employees unexpectedly crashed Tuesday after Toledo Mayor Mike Bell threatened to veto an ordinance for which he spent more than a month lobbying.

The mayor's surprise turnaround came after City Council voted to amend his original proposal to include a clause allowing Toledo's main firefighters' union to reopen negotiations on its health-care contract with the city.

The vote to amend came despite vigorous opposition from city law director Adam Loukx, who said the amendment went beyond council's authority under city law.

Local 92, which represents more than 500 firefighters, operates its own health-care fund and could become financially stretched by the extension of coverage to domestic partners, councilman D. Michael Collins argued. Eight of 12 councilmen agreed with him and voted to allow renegotiation of what the city pays per employee into the union's health-care fund.

"I believe it's only fair," Mr. Collins said. He chided the administration for not telling the union during contract negotiations this year that it was considering the extension of benefits to domestic partners. "They should have known that there was going to be a policy change."

Council then approved the domestic partner legislation, 9-3. Councilmen George Sarantou, Rob Ludeman, and Tom Waniewski voted against it.

They needn't have bothered.

Originally posted here:

Mayor vows veto on health benefits