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AN ORDINANCE establishing June 19 of each year, Juneteenth, as a paid holiday for King County employees eligible for leave benefits; and amending Ordinance 12014, Section 23, as amended, and K.C.C. 3.12.230.

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STATEMENT OF FACTS:

1.  This nation experienced a new birth of freedom with the emancipation of persons held in enslavement before the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865.

2.  The end of enslavement profoundly changed the nation as a whole, remaking the political system, restructuring its economy, restoring its honor in the community of progressive nations and renewing its national promise absent the stain of slavery.

3.  While a complex and troubled racial environment was to mark the nation's path for the time to come, and while, in many ways, the way forward remains a difficult one in racial terms, still, the physical shackles have been removed and that dark time was put behind us as a nation.

4.  African Americans, who achieved freedom as a result of the Civil War, have traditionally celebrated the date of June 19, 1865, which is the date that the end of enslavement was proclaimed in the State of Texas, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the surrender of Confederate forces at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.

5.  In acknowledgement of the continuing struggle for racial justice, as well as the seminal national victory that emancipation represents, the date should rightly take its place of honor as an observed holiday for employees of King County, named after the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

                     BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:

                     SECTION 1.  Ordinance 12014, Section 23, as amended, and K.C.C. 3.12.230 are hereby amended to read as follows:

                     A.  All employees eligible for comprehensive leave benefits shall be granted the following designated holidays with pay:

                       1.  January 1, New Year's Day;

                       2.  Third Monday in January, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day;

                       3.  Third Monday in February, President's Day;

                       4.  Last Monday in May, Memorial Day;

                       5.  June 19, Juneteenth;

                       6.  July 4, Independence Day;

                       ((6.)) 7.  First Monday in September, Labor Day;

                       ((7.)) 8.  November 11, Veteran's Day;

                       ((8.)) 9.  Fourth Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day;

                       ((9.)) 10.  Friday after Thanksgiving, Day after Thanksgiving;

                       ((10.)) 11.  December 25, Christmas Day; and

                       ((11.)) 12.  For an employee who is eligible for comprehensive leave benefits, two personal holidays, which shall be added to the employee's vacation bank in the second full pay period of the calendar year or upon hire.

                     B.  For holidays falling on a Saturday, the Friday before shall be a paid holiday.  For holidays falling on a Sunday, the Monday following shall be a paid holiday.

                     C.  An employee must be eligible for comprehensive leave benefits and in a pay status on the day before and the day following a holiday to be eligible for holiday pay.  However, an employee who has successfully completed at least five years of county service and who retires at the end of a month in which the last regularly scheduled working day is observed as a holiday, shall be eligible for holiday pay if the employee is in a pay status the day before the day observed as a holiday.  An employee otherwise eligible for holiday pay shall not be ineligible as a result of not being in a pay status on the day before or after the holiday due to budgetary furlough.

                     D.  When a holiday falls on the scheduled day off of a full time employee entitled to comprehensive leave benefits who works other than a five-day, eight-hour schedule, the employee shall be given a deferred holiday.  The employee's supervisor shall jointly select another day, preferably within the same pay period, for the employee to take as holiday.  Deferred holidays for a part-time employee eligible for comprehensive leave benefits shall be prorated to the employee's schedule.

                     SECTION 2.  The Juneteenth holiday created under this ordinance is subject to available funding resources and bargaining, taking into account the full range of pay and benefits available to employees through the county's total compensation framework, as

well as potential impacts to existing county services.

                     SECTION 3.  This ordinance takes effect January 1, 2022.