Hennepin Board Votes Down Making Juneteenth A County Holiday

From the Minnesota Reformer:

By Max Nesterak
August 11, 2020

The Hennepin County Board narrowly voted down a proposal Tuesday to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday, which would close county offices on June 19 and give employees a paid day off. Instead, the Board narrowly approved a budget-neutral, symbolic resolution allowing employees to use one of their floating holidays on Juneteenth.

Black Americans have long celebrated Juneteenth to commemorate the end of slavery, marking the day when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation — and announced that enslaved people were free.

As the country has turned its focus to racism and inequality in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, numerous companies including Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, Best Buy and Target announced they would begin observing Juneteenth.

“We have an opportunity to say right now that Black people and Juneteenth are so important to Hennepin County that we will say it is a holiday worth recognizing,” said Commissioner Angela Conley, the first Black person to serve on the Board.

The proposal faced opposition, however, including from its lead author Commissioner Debbie Goettel, over concerns that the estimated $2 million cost to the county was too great amid revenue shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I know the challenges we’re going to be facing this fall as revenues are declining and our life remains in crisis as we still are battling COVID,” Goettel said.

The county is the state’s largest provider of social services; giving employees another paid day off would incur overtime costs for county workers who work that day.

Goettel put forward the alternative proposal that adds Juneteenth to the list of days employees may take off using their floating holidays but does not provide workers additional paid time off. The action is symbolic since workers were already able to use their floating holidays for any days that are meaningful to them.

That resolution appealed to board members concerned that the county couldn’t afford to expand employee benefits and close its offices for an additional day.

“I think that recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday for all of us in the county to celebrate is a good thing,” Commissioner Jeff Johnson said. “But creating a new paid holiday for our employees right now is truly irresponsible with our constituents’ money.”

Commissioner Irene Fernando, the only other person of color on the board, attempted to make a compromise by proposing a resolution that would make Juneteenth a floating holiday in 2021 and a full holiday thereafter, but it failed.

Goettel’s amended proposal approving Juneteenth as a floating holiday passed, but without the support of Conley, Fernando and Chair Marion Greene.

“It feels like a halfway measure,” Greene said. “And it concerns me for what it could indicate for our willingness to make larger change.”

On June 19 of this year, Conley and Fernando announced a proposal to declare racism a public health crisis, which passed on June 30.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..