Cole County's flags-at-half-staff controversy has become a discussion item for Tuesday's County Commission meeting.
"I can't say what they will do, but it's possible that changes may be made to the ordinance," Jill LaHue, the commission's attorney, told the News Tribune on Friday.
The controversy erupted Monday, when the three-member commission voted 2-1 against lowering the flags outside the courthouse. Last Sunday, President Barack Obama had issued a proclamation saying, "As a mark of respect for the victims" of the massacre at an Orlando gay nightclub, "I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds "
Last Tuesday, Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle changed his vote, resulting in a 2-1 vote in favor of lowering the flag.
The issue for the commission was a 2012 county ordinance that ends a listing of occasions when the county will fly flags at half-staff with the phrase: "The flag shall only be lowered on other occasions of a Presidential or Gubernatorial proclamation (to lower flags) upon approval and permission of the County Commission."
Federal law - in Title 36, Chapter 10, Section 178 of the United States Code - states: "Any rule or custom pertaining to the display of the flag of the United States of America may be altered, modified, or repealed, or additional rules with respect thereto may be prescribed, by the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States (the president), whenever he deems it to be appropriate or desirable; and any such alteration or additional rule shall be set forth in a proclamation."
Last September, the Cole County Commission voted to keep the language a previous commission had adopted as an ordinance, in September 2012, spelling out the occasions when flags should be lowered to half-staff.
That ordinance begins: "Flying the flag on Cole County property shall be in accordance with federal law."
The county's ordinance then follows - but does not quote directly and slightly re-arranges the order of - the list of half-staff occasions from Title 4, Chapter 1 of the United States Code, which provides for flags to be flown at half-staff until noon on Memorial Day and:
On Peace Officers Memorial Day, May 15 (except when that date also is Armed Forces Day).
By order of the president upon the death of principal figures of the United States government; a governor of a state, territory or possession; a member of the United States armed forces; other officials and dignitaries.
By order of the governor upon the death of a member of the United States armed forces from Missouri.
For 30 days from the death of the president or a former president; 10 days from the day of death of the vice president, the chief justice or a retired chief justice of the United States or the speaker of the House of Representatives; from the day of death until interment of an associate justice of the Supreme Court, a secretary of an executive or military department, a former vice president; the governor of a state, territory or possession; and on the day of death and the following day for a member of Congress.
The county's ordinance also follows parts of Title 36, Chapter 10, of the U.S. Code, providing for flags at half-staff on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day; Sept. 11, Patriot Day; and during the week of May 15, Police Week upon issuance of a proclamation by the president making that designation.
The County Commission changed its decision on the flags-at-half-staff Orlando remembrance after an outcry from a number of people, both in calls directly to the commission and in social media postings.