Juneteenth remains a paid holiday for county employees

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)—On Wednesday, there was a debate over whether Juneteenth should continue to be a paid holiday for county employees. Sedgwick County Commissioners approved it, but not before contention.

The main point of contention here is money.

Outgoing County Commissioner David Dennis says he does not want county employees to have a paid holiday on Juneteenth. Instead, he thinks they should use a vacation or sick day to take a holiday.

Dennis asked how much it would cost to give employees paid leave, considering the county's new pay raises. The county's CFO says it costs $190,000 extra for the county to pay employees actually to work on one holiday.

The county's CFO estimates that on a single holiday, the county will pay employees about $789,000. Dennis says paying to "not have people work" puts an extra burden on property taxes.

"They give us property tax for us to work for those dollars that we receive, and I just cannot for the life of me understand because of all the days we are giving them off why we have to give them an additional day," said Dennis.

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County Commissioner Jim Howell shared concerns about the budget, saying the commission should consider having a "floating holiday," basically a personal day, instead of having both Presidents' Day and Juneteenth off.

However, County Commissioner Ryan Baty says the county needs to stay competitive with the City of Wichita, which currently offers employees 12 holidays and one floating holiday.

"The floating holiday would be, in my view, on top of what we have the current baseline to match what the city of Wichita does, the thought that we want to stay competitive with our benefits and the things that we do with our competing local agencies," said Baty.

Baty says he doesn't want the county to backslide on staffing and employee retention. He says the commission has made a lot of progress in attracting and keeping staff.

The commission did approve Juneteenth as a holiday but agreed to review holiday policies during their budget retreat in February.