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Cole County commissioners debate 2026 holiday calendar, direct staff to survey employees
Summary
Commissioners discussed restoring a floating holiday and whether to add the day after Christmas for this year; staff will run a SurveyMonkey poll of county employees and the item will return to the commission next week for a final decision.
County leaders spent an extended portion of the meeting considering options for the 2026 holiday schedule, debating whether to keep the current fixed set of holidays or restore a floating holiday in place of Truman Day or Columbus Day. Department heads described operational impacts: many staff must work holidays (public works, sheriff, EMS), some employees prioritize Christmas Eve or the day after Christmas, and floaters can create service disruptions if many offices close simultaneously.
Speaker 8 said staff preference leaned toward trading a lower-profile holiday for time adjacent to Christmas: “My staff are like, I'd be willing to give up Truman Day or Columbus Day if we could have Christmas Eve,” and warned that many employees prefer days that allow family travel. Other department leaders said removing certain holidays previously created service and childcare conflicts and recommended evenly spacing holidays across the year.
Commissioners agreed to have Human Resources or staff run a quick SurveyMonkey poll of county employees with options (leave the list as-is; institute a single-day floater for Truman or Columbus; adopt two floaters and remove two fixed holidays) and to place the results and the 2026 holiday schedule back on next week’s agenda. Several speakers stressed the need to consider statutory requirements that certain elected offices (for example, the collector) must maintain open hours on specified days.
The discussion did not result in a final vote on the 2026 calendar. Commissioners instructed staff to collect employee input and return with results for a decision next week.
