But with MLK Jr. Day just around the corner, for now, neither of the two measures will go into effect.
The federal government began recognizing the third Monday in January as MLK Jr. Day in 1983.
Since then, all 50 states, including Alaska, have followed suit, adding M-L-K day to the list of state holidays.
And to get even more granular, two of the three municipal governments in the Fairbanks area also formally recognize the holiday – the North Star Borough and the City of North Pole.
But the City of Fairbanks does not. Tyrone Burkhead, who spoke during citizens’ comments Monday, said it’s past time for that to change.
“I’ve waited over 40 years. My city, that I grew up in, refuses to acknowledge Dr. King’s birthday as an official holiday,” he said.
Currently, the city memorializes King’s life by encouraging employees to use work time to volunteer in the community. But on Monday, the council contemplated two new options for honoring the legacy of the famed American civil rights activist.
One option, a resolution introduced by council members Jerry Cleworth and Valerie Therrien, would have set the intention to close city hall on the third Monday in January in observance of MLK Jr. Day.
The other, an ordinance introduced only by Councilmember Therrien, would amend city code to formally recognize it as a city holiday.
More than word choice separates the two pieces of legislation. While a holiday would apply to all staff, closing city hall would impact only about 35 of the more than 200 people the municipality employs, with the bulk of the labor force stationed in other city buildings.
City Chief of Staff Michael Sanders said that might defeat the purpose.
“I don’t think anybody in city hall wants the day off if everybody else isn’t getting it. Like, that just creates a further divide between us and everybody else,” he said.
And for Councilmember Crystal Tidwell, the resolution didn’t pay MLK Jr. day adequate respect, and she see saw it as a watered down version of the ordinance.
“For me, I don’t think that conveys what we want to show, which is celebrating an actual holiday,” she said.
The council ultimately rejected the resolution, with Therrien joining councilmembers Tidwell and Sue Sprinkle in voting it down.
“I really think we should have this holiday. And that’s why – when I heard everybody talking, that’s why I voted against my own resolution,” Therrien said.
Mayor David Pruhs broke the 3-3 tie, casting the fourth vote on the side of rejecting the measure.
Councilmember Jerry Cleworth had collaborated with Therrien to float the resolution as an alternative to the ordinance. He said that’s because the four union contracts between the city and its staff don’t treat the day uniformly.
The Fairbanks Firefighters Union already recognizes MLK Jr. Day as one of their formal holidays, while the other three do not. He said that means adding it as a city holiday would create disparity between unions.
“What you’re gonna do here is give some people 11 holidays, and some 10,” he said.
But Sanders, the chief of staff, said he’s pretty sure the firefighters union would be happy to add a new, personal holiday into their schedule to bring back that parity.
“I’m fairly confident that they’d be willing to go for it,” he said.
That idea, however, highlighted another key distinction between the resolution and ordinance: Money. Formalizing a new city holiday creates another opportunity for staff to earn overtime pay, and according to a city fiscal note, codifying MLK Jr. Day as a holiday and adding a new personal holiday for the firefighters union would cost the city about $130,000 in the upcoming fiscal year.
That led Cleworth to move to postpone the ordinance to a Jan. 7 work session for further consideration. That motion passed 4-2, with Therrien and Tidwell opposed. The next regular meeting will be held Jan. 13, one week before MLK Jr. Day. That's now the earliest the ordinance could pass at public hearing.