Geneva unanimously OKs adding paid King Day holiday

After hearing more about how much it will cost Geneva to make Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day a paid holiday, aldermen who last week objected have changed their mind.

The council voted unanimously this week to add the holiday that honors the late civil rights leader.

But not before considering whether to make it an unpaid day off.

Or hearing an impassioned speech from Mayor Kevin Burns, who Dec. 14 cast a tiebreaking vote in a committee of the whole meeting to add the holiday.

Five aldermen objected last week, based on the state of the city's budget. With a hiring freeze, and employees taking pay cuts due to declining income, Alderman Ray Pawlak said it was not appropriate to add a paid holiday. Four other aldermen agreed.

Monday, Pawlak and Alderman Ron Singer suggested making the day an unpaid holiday, a move with which Alderman Dawn Vogelsberg disagreed, calling it "unfair" to employees. "Vote the holiday up or down," she said.

Burns provided a cost estimate "For those who insist on taking refuge in the dimly-lit cave of costs:" $1,300 extra for holiday pay for police employees required to work that day. However, if snowplow drivers have to work that day, it could cost the city as much as $20,000 extra, depending on the time it takes to clear streets, he said.

But he felt it was worth it, noting it's been 26 years since President Ronald Reagan signed the law establishing the holiday. "I believe it is time Geneva catches up," he said, and suggested employees and aldermen use it as a "day on" to perform acts of community service.

Burns was also critical of many of the online commenters on a Dec. 15 Daily Herald story about the issue, but said he was not surprised by the "bigotry, racism and unbridled hatred in the idiots'" comments. He challenged those who called him and other aldermen who support the holiday "dolts" to run against him in the next election.

Eligible employees will receive their regular pay for the day. Police department employees who work that day will receive extra pay.

Full-time firefighters and workers in the city's electrical departments won't receive a day off or extra pay, because they work under union contracts that already spell out which days are holidays, and King Day isn't one of them.

The issue surfaced when the mayor and city administrator were setting the council's 2010 meeting calendar, and discussed how the city council normally did not meet on King Day due to the holiday, but that city workers went about their normal business that day.