TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

A Kern County supervisor would like another county department to offer civil marriage ceremonies — gay and straight — now that the clerk’s office will no longer do it.

Supervisor Don Maben said Friday that at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, he will ask the county administrative officer to look into options for continuing to offer what has been a low-cost service for thousands of people a year.

He declined to say which departments he thinks could pick up the task because “I don’t want to give some department head a heart attack.”

Maben had harsh words for Auditor-Controller-County Clerk Ann Barnett, who decided to end her office’s practice of performing civil marriages after the California Supreme Court this week stood by its ruling legalizing same-sex marriages in about a week.

The county clerk’s office will still have to issue marriage licenses to gay couples beginning June 17. The office has charged $30 for a wedding service.

“I think it sucks,” Maben said of Barnett’s decision to cut off the office-performed weddings after June 13. “The fact is this is a service that has been provided for a long time and to take away the rights of any citizen because of your personal beliefs when you’re a public official is wrong.”

For days, including Friday, Barnett has not returned multiple calls for comment on this issue. In a ness release Wednesday, she said her office will not have the staff nor space to handle the expected uptick in license and ceremony requests.

She had the support Friday of state Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield. He pointed out Barnett is not legally required to perform marriage ceremonies.

“Her legal obligation is to issue licenses and she has indicated from what I read that she’s going to do that in full compliance of the Supreme Court's decision,” Ashburn said.

Maben said marriages have been performed in county probation offices in Mojave. A good fit, he said, could be a department with offices around the county.

And “we would have to do it for everyone,” Maben said.

“There’s prior practice that shows it can be done,” Maben said. “We need a department head willing to make it happen.”

It wouldn’t be a good idea to have judges do the duty because the bench is already busy with cases, he said.

“No one has approached us to my knowledge,” said Kern County Superior Court Executive Officer Terry McNally.

McNally said judges have the authority to perform marriages, but they are constitutional officers so they would have the right to decide.

“They fall into the same category as the county clerk,” he said. “From that standpoint, it would be up to each individual judge about whether to do them or not.”

Gay advocates were happy to hear someone in the county was trying to find an alternative to the office of the county clerk.

They included Colette Shewcraft, who plans to get married on June 17. But she said it doesn’t really matter because many ministers have offered to do the service for free.

“This is our home; we want to give our county money,” she said. “If this is the way it has to be, this is the way it has to be.”