King holiday backers focus on 3 swing votes

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But holiday supporters don't believe simply designating the day is enough. They intend to continue pressuring the Greenville County Council until a full, paid holiday for county employees honoring King is adopted — the same holiday recognized by the federal and state governments, the cities of Greenville, Simpsonville, Mauldin, Pickens County and Laurens County.

The controversy over the holiday is entering its 14th week, with supporters of a paid holiday saying the fight will not end, and opponents saying the issue is finished.

Councilwoman Lottie Gibson said she will ask the council to reconsider its vote during Tuesday night's meeting, but she needs seven votes to even bring the issue up again. Five voted against the majority's proposal April 1.

That means she will have to sway two of the three councilmen seen as possible swing votes: Eric Bedingfield, Mark Kingsbury and Bob Taylor.

Gibson, called the April 1 vote "a little April Fools joke" and is confident she could get seven votes.

ù "Certainly they've considered the damage this has done to the community," she said. "We may just get all of them."

If holiday supporters fail to get the vote recalled Tuesday night, it will take a super-majority — nine votes — to bring it up again for the next year, according to County Attorney Jay Tothacer. Those rules could be suspended by a simple majority vote at any time.

A similar ordinance — for example a new ONE declaring a paid holiday for King — would have to be presented through the council and not through a committee for the next year, Tothacer said.

But Gibson's hope for all 12 councilors to vote to reconsider might be ambitious. Five of the seven councilors interviewed Friday said they will not vote to reconsider the April 1 ordinance, including Bedingfield.

"My district has made it perfectly clear where they stand," he said.

Despite the recommendations of the council's MLK Study Committee, Kingsbury proposed a measure that would fix five holidays, none of which were a Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and let county employees vote on the other five holidays they would observe.

The council's MLK Study Committee recommended the county designate "MLK Civil Rights Day" and move an existing county holiday to the third Monday in January. The county employees would vote on which holiday to move and a resolution would be passed honoring local, state and national civil rights leaders.

Joe Dill said he would not vote to reconsider the motion. Kingsbury and Scott Case said they would vote to reconsider only if something better was proposed — which they said was not.

Stephen Selby said he will not support reconsidering the motion but could if the letters "MLK" were dropped from the "MLK Civil Rights Day."

Councilor Dozier Brooks could not be reached Friday.

Taylor also could not be reached, but he voted for the holiday in a public safety committee meeting April 1.

Dill wasn't swayed.

"It's over," he said.

Jason Zacher covers Greenville County and can be reached at 298-4272.