Charles County employees no longer get off Monday after Super Bowl

Charles County employees will have to be back to work bright and early on Super Bowl Monday next year.

At their June 11 meeting, the Charles commissioners approved county government’s 2025 calendar in a split vote, after two commissioners were advocating for more holidays for county employees.

Commissioner President Reuben B. Collins II (D), Commissioner Ralph E. Patterson II (D) and Commissioner Thomasina “Sina” Coates (D) voted in favor of the calendar as it was proposed.

Commissioner Amanda Stewart (D) and Commissioner Gilbert “BJ” Bowling (D) voted against it.

“I understand in saving money. I also understand investing in our employees. We can’t pay the most, but we can give them a couple of extra perks,” Bowling said. “I’ll challenge anyone that comes up to me and says to me that they’re upset with me for giving an extra day off to the county employees because I know how hard they work.”

Bowling did clarify that he did not believe that any commissioner did not appreciate the county employees, but that it should be something to recognize.

Collins said he had received complaints from some about county employees receiving the Monday after Super Bowl off, but Stewart challenged him on that saying that it should have been brought to the attention of the other commissioners.

Stewart said she had heard no complaints, but thanks from many different county employees for providing the day off after the big game in the past.

“To sit here and say we can spend millions of dollars on Section 8 tax credits, but you don’t want to spend a few thousand on our employees — that’s sad,” Stewart said.

Patterson commented saying that employees could just use their paid time off, and that he does not get why the Monday following Super Bowl is so important compared to other sporting events.

“We don’t get days off for the NBA finals,” Patterson said.

According to Nielsen Media Data, the 2024 Super Bowl averaged over 123 million viewers across television and streaming platforms. Nielsen said that the June 9 NBA game with the Boston Celtics victory over the Dallas Mavericks was the most-watched NBA finals Game 2 in five years, peaking at 14.1 million viewers.

The new county government calendar includes a six-week break for the commissioners from late July to early September. This break is standard practice for the Charles commissioners, but the neighboring Calvert and St. Mary’s County commissioners do not include such a long break every year.