The city of Longmont is joining a small but growing list of Colorado municipalities adding Juneteenth as an official paid holiday for employees.
Juneteenth will be the 11th recognized holiday the city observes as soon as the city council votes for an official Juneteenth ordinance, most likely in January, said Joanne Zeas, the city’s chief human resource officer, during Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
The city council voted unanimously Tuesday night to bring the ordinance back for a formal vote.
Councilmember Aren Rodriguez said it made sense to align Longmont city holidays with federal holidays.
“Traditionally as federal holidays are added, that city then adds those,” Rodriguez said.
President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday on June 17, the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr.Day in 1983, according to Newsweek.
Juneteenth recognizes June 19, 1865 as the date that news of slavery’s end reached slaves in Texas and other states in the southwest — formalizing their emancipatoin after the end of the Civil War a month earlier, Newsweek states.
At least 10 Colorado municipalities added Juneteenth on their paid holiday schedules as of July while 17 are considering the idea, Kevin Bommer, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, said Wednesday.
Many others have not yet discussed adding the holiday while the city of Greeley has no plans to make Juneteenth a holiday, Bommer said. “They indicated they have a floating holiday set aside for employees to take to observe a cultural celebration,” Bommer said.
There was plenty of interest in adding Juneteenth shortly after Biden signed the new law, Bommer said. “Clearly it is something they (municipalities) are talking about,” he said.
State lawmakers may declare Juneteenth a state holiday when they reconvene early next year, Bommer said.
The city council, in July, passed a resolution recognizing the significance of Juneteenth, and encouraged “the observation, celebration and commemoration of the holiday,” according to a city staff report to the council.
City staff recommended the council incorporate the holiday for all benefits-eligible employees, including those in the Police and Fire Collective Bargaining Unit.
