In the past three years, the Kootenai County commissioners have taken off a range of nine to 31 days a year.

Commissioner Rick Currie took 23 days off in 2009, nine days off in all of 2008 and 21 days off in 2007, according to county calendars marking the three officials' off days.

Commissioner Rich Piazza took 29 days off in 2009, 30 days in 2008 and 31 days in 2007.

Commissioner Todd Tondee took off 18 days in '09, 26 in '08, and 17 in '07.

The officials don't have vacation or sick days, but can take days off when needed.

Idaho law requires elected officials work a minimum of six hours per month.

Currie said that though the officials do wrack up extra hours at late-night hearings, early morning meetings and weekend on-site visits, he doesn't take days off to balance out that time.

"I don't say, 'OK, I spent four hours in the evening at this, so I'm not going to work four hours during the day someplace else.' That doesn't even enter into it," Currie said. "When you're an elected official, you provide the time that it takes to do the job."

He enjoys hunting in the fall, he said, but otherwise doesn't desire vacationing every year.

"I'm not a vacation person," he said. "I enjoy family, I enjoy friends and I enjoy the community, and I don't necessarily have to get on a plane and go someplace else to enjoy myself."

Commissioner Piazza also said he doesn't take time off to compensate for hours that stretch beyond 9 to 5.

"That's just part of the job," Piazza said on a late afternoon this week. "I started this morning at 7 o'clock, and I'm still here."

He tries to fit in a hunting trip each season, he said. He takes a vacation once a year.

The commissioner took off a long stretch of days in 2008 and '09 to tend to his wife, he said, who passed in January '09 after a long battle with cancer.

"I'd give it (that time) back to you a hundred times over if I could get her back," he said. "But I can't."

Commissioner Tondee, who just returned from a 10-day vacation in the Caribbean, said he doesn't take days off to balance out extra hours, either.

"My wife calls me a workaholic," he said.

He still tries to schedule one vacation a year, he said, usually lasting a week to 10 days. He occasionally takes a weekend away, as well, he said.

"It's tough sometimes," he said of fitting vacations into commissioners' packed schedules. "But sometimes you just need to take time."

Both Piazza and Currie's seats are up for election this year.

The commissioners earn $71,080 a year.