diff --git a/evergreen/bazel_compile.sh b/evergreen/bazel_compile.sh
index a5b8196c8e5..5f07bf78ad1 100755
--- a/evergreen/bazel_compile.sh
+++ b/evergreen/bazel_compile.sh
@@ -142,13 +142,13 @@ LOCAL_ARG="$(bazel_evergreen_shutils::compute_local_arg build)"
 # build on the waterfall, then we don't need the --release
 # flag. Otherwise, this is potentially a build that "leaves
 # the building", so we do want that flag.
-LOCAL_ARG="$(bazel_evergreen_shutils::maybe_release_flag "$LOCAL_ARG")"
+RELEASE_FLAG="$(bazel_evergreen_shutils::maybe_release_flag)"
 
 # Ensure server is up and print PID
 bazel_evergreen_shutils::ensure_server_and_print_pid "$BAZEL_BINARY"
 
 # Build flags line
-ALL_FLAGS="--verbose_failures ${LOCAL_ARG} ${bazel_args:-} ${bazel_compile_flags:-} ${task_compile_flags:-} --define=MONGO_VERSION=${version} ${patch_compile_flags:-}"
+ALL_FLAGS="--verbose_failures ${LOCAL_ARG} ${bazel_args:-} ${bazel_compile_flags:-} ${task_compile_flags:-} --define=MONGO_VERSION=${version} $RELEASE_FLAG ${patch_compile_flags:-}"
 echo "${ALL_FLAGS}" > .bazel_build_flags
 
 set +o errexit
diff --git a/evergreen/bazel_evergreen_shutils.sh b/evergreen/bazel_evergreen_shutils.sh
index f8d2a8d1798..69c1db7dc58 100644
--- a/evergreen/bazel_evergreen_shutils.sh
+++ b/evergreen/bazel_evergreen_shutils.sh
@@ -115,11 +115,10 @@ bazel_evergreen_shutils::extract_config_flags() {
 
 # Adds --config=public-release if this is a release-ish build.
 bazel_evergreen_shutils::maybe_release_flag() {
-  local local_arg="$1"
   if [[ "${is_patch:-}" == "true" || -z "${push_bucket:-}" || "${compiling_for_test:-}" == "true" ]]; then
-    echo "$local_arg" # non-release
+    echo "" # non-release
   else
-    echo "$local_arg --config=public-release"
+    echo "--config=public-release"
   fi
 }
 
diff --git a/evergreen/bazel_test.sh b/evergreen/bazel_test.sh
index 5e486129d74..28dbbb2490c 100644
--- a/evergreen/bazel_test.sh
+++ b/evergreen/bazel_test.sh
@@ -29,13 +29,13 @@ LOCAL_ARG="$(bazel_evergreen_shutils::compute_local_arg test)"
 # build on the waterfall, then we don't need the --release
 # flag. Otherwise, this is potentially a build that "leaves
 # the building", so we do want that flag.
-LOCAL_ARG="$(bazel_evergreen_shutils::maybe_release_flag "$LOCAL_ARG")"
+RELEASE_FLAG="$(bazel_evergreen_shutils::maybe_release_flag)"
 
 # Possibly scale test timeout and append to bazel_args
 bazel_evergreen_shutils::maybe_scale_test_timeout_and_append
 
 # Build the shared flags and persist the --config subset
-ALL_FLAGS="--verbose_failures ${LOCAL_ARG} ${bazel_args:-} ${bazel_compile_flags:-} ${task_compile_flags:-} --define=MONGO_VERSION=${version} ${patch_compile_flags:-}"
+ALL_FLAGS="--verbose_failures ${LOCAL_ARG} ${bazel_args:-} ${bazel_compile_flags:-} ${task_compile_flags:-} --define=MONGO_VERSION=${version} $RELEASE_FLAG ${patch_compile_flags:-}"
 echo "${ALL_FLAGS}" > .bazel_build_flags
 
 # to capture exit codes