Harvey Milk Day Not an Official Holiday for Weho; City Still Plans to Celebrate

will be closed for 10 holidays, according to the 2012 city calendar released last week. However, Harvey Milk Day will not be one of those holidays.

City Hall will close for New Year’s Day (Jan. 2), Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Jan. 16), Presidents Day (Feb. 20), Cesar Chavez Day (March 26), Memorial Day (May 28), Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (Sept. 3), Veteran’s Day (Nov. 12) and Thanksgiving (Nov. 22-23).

But on May 22 – Harvey Milk’s birthday – the city is open for business as usual.

Some residents are surprised the city is not closing on this day, which honors the first openly gay elected official in America.

“With the large number of gay residents, it’s surprising that the city isn’t closing for Harvey Milk Day,” said resident Scott Sanderson. “Aside from San Francisco, of any city, West Hollywood should be honoring him.”

According to Vivian Love, director of administrative services, in 2009 the state declared Harvey Milk’s birthday as a “day of special significance” in California, but not as a state holiday.

“The City Council has taken the action that West Hollywood would also declare May 22 as Harvey Milk Day and we would commemorate it on an annual basis,” Love said. “However, May 22 is not designated as an official city or state holiday.”

The city plans to sponsor public events commemorating Milk, such as a special lecture and film screening or art exhibition, she said. A planning committee is working to determine exactly what public events the city should hold.  

If any City Hall employees want to take Harvey Milk Day off, they can use one of their five floating holidays or vacation time.

Cesar Chavez Day

Some residents wonder why City Hall would close for Cesar Chavez Day, but not Harvey Milk Day. They argue that Harvey Milk had a greater impact on the lives of West Hollywood residents than Chavez did. 

Love explained that the unions representing City Hall employees pushed to have Cesar Chavez Day included as a city holiday. 

If that’s the case, couldn’t employee unions also push to have Harvey Milk Day as a holiday?

“No,” said Love, noting that Harvey Milk Day is only a day of special significance in California, not a state holiday. Even Sacramento is open for business on May 22.

The state of California declared Cesar Chavez Day a state holiday in 2000. March 31 is the birthday of the Latino Labor leader, but the holiday is usually observed on the preceding Monday.

In addition to Harvey Milk Day, the state of California also recognizes days of special significance for former governor and U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s birthday (Feb. 6), environmentalist John Muir’s birthday (April 21), disability rights activist Ed Roberts’ birthday (Jan. 23), California Poppy Day (April 6) and Day of the Teacher (May 11), among others. Schools are encouraged to commemorate these days, but state offices are open. 

Officially open on Christmas Day

As for the rest of the city calendar, the other notable day when the city is officially open for business is Christmas Day. The city does not recognize any religious holiday, a decision made back in 1985 when the city was first organizing.

In reality, however, there is only a skeletal staff working in City Hall on Christmas Day. Most employees take Dec. 25 off and few, if any, residents come to City Hall that day to do business.

In addition to those city holidays, City Hall will operate on a every other Friday of the year. On Modified Fridays, only the parking permits and cashier counter in the first-floor lobby are open. All other departments are closed.

Thanks to the way Modified Fridays and the city holidays fall on the calendar, city employees end up getting four-day weekends for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Cesar Chavez Day.  

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