Lawndale : Holiday to Be Negotiated

With only Mayor Sarann Kruse dissenting, the City Council said the question of observing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a city holiday should be decided in negotiations with city employee groups.

“We shouldn’t just say, ‘Let’s give it to them,’ ” Councilman Dan McKenzie said.

Kruse argued that the city had an obligation to make the national holiday a city holiday and predicted that “it won’t be too long before we see most cities doing it.”

The federal government last year designated the third Monday in January as a national holiday observing King’s birthday. In the South Bay, Los Angeles, Inglewood, Carson and Redondo Beach observe the day as a city holiday.