AURORA | Juneteenth, the annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S., is a step closer to becoming a paid holiday for City of Aurora employees, as City Council members expressed broad support for the holiday on Monday.
“I really believe that Juneteenth ought to be celebrated in this city a lot more than it is,” Mayor Mike Coffman said. “I think that it ought to be a formal holiday. I think it ought to be a paid holiday.”
The June 19 celebration of Black emancipation and Black history was made a paid federal holiday in 2021, amid a wave of states and localities weighing the benefits of taking the day off. June 19 marks the day in 1865 federal soldiers marched into Galveston, Texas to assume control of the state in ensuring all enslaved people were freed, two years after the emancipation proclamation was signed.
While recognized as a “ceremonial holiday” in Colorado, Juneteenth is not a paid holiday at the state level. Ryan Lantz, Aurora’s director of human resources, said 35 cities and counties within the state have made Juneteenth a paid holiday.
It would be the city’s 11th paid holiday and cost Aurora about $246,000 for civil service and career service employees required to work that day, Lantz said.
Benefits for taking the day off could include attracting and retaining employees, encouraging work-life balance and celebrating diversity within the community, Lantz said.
“It’s recognizing (and) celebrating the emancipation,” Lantz said. “Communities do have identities, and ours is a very diverse one, so we thought this would be great to embrace our diversity and help strengthen our identity, and also honor the community members.”
He also pointed out that diversity was among the concerns identified in the consent decree mandating reforms of Aurora police and fire.
Coffman suggested recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday, while either getting rid of an existing paid holiday or a personal day for city workers at the discretion of the city manager. He and council members Francoise Bergan and Steve Sundberg said they were worried about the potential impact of adding a paid holiday given the backlog of work facing employees already.
“I just am concerned (that) by adding another paid holiday that we’re impacting productivity, and then I also wonder, you know, what other holidays might be coming forward,” Bergan said. “I also get a lot of complaints from constituents and developers about not being served in a timely fashion.”
Sundberg suggested the city could instead spend up to $246,000 on a Juneteenth monument produced by a local or regional artist. Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, who is Jewish, said she would like to see a Holocaust memorial constructed as well.
Arguing in favor of adding Juneteenth as a paid holiday without the compromises suggested by Coffman, Juan Marcano brought up how the city set aside millions of dollars recently on retention bonuses for public safety workers.
“I think that we’re kind of pinching pennies here,” he said. “We have a lot of events that take place on Juneteenth already, so that will actually allow folks to participate in those without having to take a paid day off on their own. And frankly, you know, Americans are overworked and underpaid … so I’m happy to have the City of Aurora be a leader.”
Ultimately, Coffman’s and Sundberg’s proposals did not receive enough support to move forward, while the original proposal to make Juneteenth a paid holiday was unopposed. Jurisnky’s suggestion regarding a Holocaust memorial was not considered to move forward.
A holiday is fine, but I question a paid one. We already have too many, and I imagine no one questions the cost to employers, which are then passed onto consumers. This is not a “racist” view, as I question the need for other paid holidays, as well.
No.
Where shall we draw the line? Certainly there are other events, defining moments, pivotal moments, seminal moments in the history of some groups worthy of commemoration. If such commemoration were to come with anything less than equal recognition to this proposed paid holiday would that then be divisive?
Help me ought. Why does commemoration need to be linked to a paid benefit to government employees?
With such a multi-ethnic culture as has our City perhaps we ought to be sensitive to immigrants and to celebrate holidays from their cultures with a paid day off. For instance, I just did a search on Ethiopian national holidays as we have a large Ethiopian community. They have several holidays perhaps worthy of commemoration. I note too that they do not just commemorate Christian religious holidays, but also Islamic ones. Perhaps we should as well. Perhaps also Jewish ones.
I have to agree with Joe and I am sure lots of others. To honor something is one thing to make it a paid one- Lets just give a quarter of a million dollars away … No. After all the government workers are the only ones that get that… does the hourly worker at a fast food or a essential garbage man? We keep coming up with things to “honor” while it makes the government workers even less efficient than they are already. Have you tried to call any of the government offices… Your call will be answered by the next available…wait time 45 minutes!
i fully support Juneteenth but a paid holiday just for city employees strikes me as completely unfair to every person who isn’t a paid city employee. Why should any of MY taxes pay for this “feel good” benefit when the city struggles to fund adequate services across the board?
Also how about the impact on businesses who depend on city offices to be open to be productive? Didn’t the city just launch a committee to be more business friendly? Closing on a weekday when the rest of the world is working is hardly business friendly.