One couple gets license after commissioners agree on obeying judge's order

By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter

Signs telling would-be brides and grooms to seek their marriage licenses in Linn County have been removed from the doors of the Benton County Courthouse. But as of Thursday afternoon, only one couple had appeared to exercise their newly restored ability to purchase a marriage license in Benton County.

The Benton County Board of Commissioners has complied with Judge Wayne Harris' Wednesday judgment that the county must resume issuing marriage licenses. Licenses are available only to heterosexual couples.

Following a Thursday morning closed-session meeting with County Counsel Vance Croney, Commissioners Jay Dixon, Annabelle Jaramillo and Linda Modrell voted unanimously to comply with Harris' order to resume issuing licenses. Harris ruled Wednesday that the county had failed its duty to provide citizens with a service, in deciding a lawsuit by a heterosexual couple from Monroe who wanted to receive a marriage license.

The commissioners in March, by majority vote, decided that same-sex couples should have the same rights to marriage as heterosexual couples. But a warning from the state Attorney General's office advised the county not to proceed with issuing licenses to same-sex couples. In an effort to treat all couples equal, the board decided to cease issuing all licenses until the state Supreme Court had a chance to review the law prohibiting gay marriage.

If the board had decided not to comply with Harris' ruling, it could have been found in contempt of court, which could have resulted in fines, jail time or both for all three commissioners as well as county clerk, James Morales, also named in the lawsuit, said Croney.

The board was visibly disconcerted after making its decision.

"I think that's enough for this morning," Jay Dixon said.

"Five months seems like a really long time," Modrell said, thinking back to the first board discussion of same-sex marriage in early March.

"I think I've aged five years," Dixon said.

"This is real painful, being (as I have been) an advocate for equity since I was knee-high to a grasshopper," said Jaramillo.

Modrell agreed.

"This flies directly in the face of the Constitution," she said.

In a statement issued by the board following the decision, the commissioners discussed some of their frustrations following the order to issue licenses.

The statement said: "We still have great concern that a state statute is in conflict with the Oregon Constitution. That issue is being addressed in a higher court. Harris' decision also did not resolve the question of the ability of officials to interpret the constitution. We sincerely hope that the constitutional issues and authority questions will soon be resolved. People on both sides of the issue feel passionately and deserve an answer."

In her office after the decision, Jaramillo discussed her disappointment and her hopes for the future.

"I've always felt very strongly about equity issues," Jaramillo said. "It's my value not to treat people unfairly. It's my hope at some point in time people will recognize their neighbors and be compassionate towards them."

Jaramillo said she was comfortable with the board's decision to comply with the court order, but also with the actions the board took this spring.

"We accelerated moving this to the courts," she said.

The board's goal all along was to speed a decision by the state Supreme Court on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, and a ruling may come by early next year.

Dixon said he was also comfortable with the decision to comply with Harris' decision, and that the issue is in the hands of the courts. But he wished that a Supreme Court decision would be made sooner than next year.

In the board's statement, commissioners also addressed the roller coaster ride they, and the county, have been on since the spring.

"The residents of Benton County have been very patient with the issue, and we thank them for that," it said.

Joan Demarest, a deputy district attorney for Benton County, received an internal e-mail Thursday announcing the board's decision to return to issuing marriage licenses. She and her fiance, Jonathan Pugsley, are getting married Sept. 12. Demarest said she had been mourning the fact that she wasn't able to get a marriage license in her home county.

"I grew up here," Demarest said.

When she received the e-mail, she phoned Pugsley, who works in Portland, and told him to drive down to meet her at the courthouse. Just before the office closed at 5 p.m., she and Pugsley filled out the paperwork for their license.

Demarest said she agreed with the commissioners' earlier stand on same-sex marriage.

"We totally support what the commissioners did," she said.

But she and Pugsley decided that they would still be in support if they took advantage of this new opportunity to get a license.

"And the fee goes to Benton County," she added.

The couple plan to marry on the beach at Yachats before returning for a reception in Corvallis.

Theresa Hogue can be reached at theresa.hogue@lee.net or 758-9526.