Orono’s municipal employees will get Juneteenth off this year after the town’s council voted Monday night to approve a one-time paid holiday.
An assistant clerk for the town, Charena Lofton-Fullwood, recently pointed out that Juneteenth, or June 19, is the only federal holiday that Orono does not observe. The day commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It was declared a federal and state holiday in 2021.
“For a town that prides itself on being inclusive and culturally sensitive, I’m surprised and disappointed that this hasn’t been addressed sooner but I’m hopeful it will be now,” Lofton-Fullwood wrote to Cornell Knight, interim town manager, in an email last week.
Despite signing orders that proclaim the day as Juneteenth in Orono since 2021, the council has not made it a paid holiday for employees. It is the latest town to do so, albeit only for this year, and joins others in Maine that close their nonessential offices.
The council will hold a meeting in July to discuss whether to make it a permanent paid holiday as part of an ordinance, but for now, the 5-1 vote granting a one-time paid holiday (with Councilor Leo Kenney opposed) applies only to this year. Councilor Jacob Baker was absent.
The council considered the issue last year and agreed to take it up at a later meeting, but “it’s an item we missed, quite frankly,” Dan Demeritt, council chairperson, said Monday night. While it is too late to amend an ordinance, the council wants to be responsive to the concerns of staff, he said.
Kenney argued against the order to grant the one-time paid holiday because an attorney advised that it is a benefit to be negotiated with employees who are part of a union.
“I’m making no judgment about whether this is a holiday that should be added or not, but for me, this process was pretty greatly flawed [by] taking it out of negotiations,” Kenney said.
The town’s finance director determined that approving the order would cost the town between $14,000 to $15,000 in public safety overtime, Knight told councilors.
While many councilors agreed with Kenney’s sentiment about the importance of sticking to a process, they also leaned in favor of making Juneteenth a paid holiday in the short term. It’s a federal and state holiday, so many members of the public would expect town offices to be closed, Councilor Sonja Birthisel said.
“I don’t think it is outside the bounds of reasonable for the council to be more generous with holidays,” she said. “I would feel very differently if we were taking a holiday away, but granting an additional holiday would not impinge on staff in a similar way.”
Kenney said the move is “being generous with taxpayer money,” while some departments have run over budget this year. Knight clarified there would likely be overdrafts in the public safety and town manager salary lines.
Vice Chairperson Sarah Marx said the council dropped the ball by not revisiting the matter, and it’s important for it to stay true to its commitment to support diversity and inclusion.
“I believe deeply that when we make proclamations and put these big words out there, we have a moral obligation to live into those things we proclaim,” she said.
The origin of the Juneteenth dates back to June 19, 1865, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger marched into Galveston, Texas, to inform the last enslaved African-Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended. More than two years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves held in the Confederacy would be freed.
