Drafter

Clerk 11/17/2020

Title

AN ORDINANCE establishing October 12 of each year, Indigenous Peoples' Day, 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.

Body

STATEMENT OF FACTS:

1.  Popular sentiment is emerging for more formal acknowledgement and celebration of populations long resident in the region that have been historically ignored or suppressed.

2.  The land that became the United States has been home for tens of thousands of years to indigenous communities, who built lifeways deeply tied to the land.

3.  Over time, those communities developed ways of knowing, ways of being, ways of remembering, ways of praise and reverence, that were profoundly altered by European colonization starting in the seventeenth century.

4.  The affirmation of these communities, and the remembrance of those ways contributes greatly to the ancient regional narrative and the store of human understanding and honors their continued contribution to the culture of the United States and King County.

5.  In 2020 6.79 million indigenous people reside in the United States and nearly 14,000 indigenous people reside in King County.

6.  King County is situated on the historic lands of the Coast Salish peoples.

7.  October 12 each year provides an opportunity for celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day, and should be established as an observed holiday for employees of King County.

                     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.  July 4, Independence Day;

                       6.  First Monday in September, Labor Day;

                       7.  October 12, Indigenous Peoples' Day;

                       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 Indigenous People's Day 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.  The office of equity and social justice shall consult with county employees who identify as Native American and with tribes located within King County on whether October 12 is the preferred date to designate the Indigenous Peoples' Day holiday with pay.  After consulting with those employees and tribes located within King County, if the office determines that a different date is more appropriate to designate Indigenous Peoples' Day, then the office shall transmit necessary legislation to change the October 12 date to the council before December 31, 2021.

                     SECTION 3.  Section 1 of this ordinance takes effect January 1, 2022.  Section 2 of this ordinance takes effect January 1, 2021.