Some Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly members haven’t gotten the memo on DOGE — government efficiency, a priority for Americans who voted for the Trump Administration to reduce the size of government and make it ore efficient.
The Assembly is considering granting yet another holiday to borough workers, which would bring the total number of holidays — in addition to personal leave days — to 15 per year, or three five-day work weeks.
ORDINANCE NO. 2025-03 would add Juneteenth as a borough holiday, which means offices would close and government service would generally not be given. The ordinance is being sponsored by Assembly members Scott Crass, Kristan Kelly, and Liz Reeves-Ramos.
A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday in the Mona Lisa Drexler Assembly Chambers at the Juanita Helms Administration Center, 907 Terminal Street during the regular Assembly meeting, which starts at 6 pm.
Juneteenth recognizes June 19, 1865, when the news that the Civil War had ended reached Galveston, Texas. The word “Juneteenth” is Black English contraction, or portmanteau, of the month “June” and the date “Nineteenth.”
Already the State of Alaska has succumbed to the pressure to add another holiday, and so has the municipality of Anchorage (and Anchorage added another — Indigenous People’s Day). The Fairbanks Assembly trio of big-government wants to let workers off on Juneteenth.
The ordinance can be read here.
The cost to the borough taxpayers is estimated to be between $193,000 and $218,000 for that one extra day, depending on whether the borough is as currently staffed or fully staffed. That is more than $2 per resident of the borough that taxpayers will have to shell out for the privilege of having access to borough services one day less.
Currently, borough workers get the following days paid, without working, of if they must work, they receive double pay:
1. New Year’s Day (January 1st);
2. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday (third Monday in January);
3. Presidents’ Day (third Monday in February);
4. Seward’s Day (last Monday in March);
5. Memorial Day (last Monday in May);
6. Independence Day (July 4th);
7. Labor Day (first Monday in September);
8. Alaska Day (October 18th);
9. Veterans Day (November 11th);
10. Thanksgiving Days (fourth Thursday;
11. and following Friday after Thanksgiving in November);
13. Christmas Eve (December 24th);
14. and Christmas Day (December 25th).
