COEUR d'ALENE - Newly elected highway commissioners will have to wait several months to start making decisions.

Although Idaho's new election consolidation law calls for newly elected highway officials to take office on July 1, state officials say outgoing commissioners must serve their full terms that surpass that date.

That means Eastside Highway District's two exiting commissioners will serve until Oct. 1, shaving three months off the new officials' terms.

The same applies for lame duck incumbents in Canyon, Notus-Parma and Hagerman highway districts.

"It's confusing. I admit that," said Tim Hurst, chief deputy secretary of state.

Realizing the term overlap, the state Legislature passed a measure earlier this year stating that exiting incumbents will serve their full terms, Hurst said.

It was a tough call, Hurst said, deciding whether to give more time to the incumbents or the new officials.

"During the session, I got phone calls ... The ones who liked what the commissioners were doing wanted it extended, and the ones who didn't like it, wanted it to be cut short," Hurst said. "(The Legislature) finally just looked at what they'd done in the past, and in 1987, they shortened the term."

Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Barry McHugh said he supports the state's position, though he believes the election consolidation law created an unfair situation.

"There are good arguments from both sides. From one perspective, sitting commissioners would have their terms cut short," McHugh said. "On the other hand, newly elected commissioners will be serving something less than a 4-year term. They may miss out on some important decisions that have to be made."

Lorna Casey-Kaiser, who lost the race for Eastside's zone 1 seat last week, frowns at the outgoing commissioners being in office in August, when the next year's budget will be set.

"I just feel the new commissioners would have the best interest of the people at heart with planning the budget," Casey-Kaiser said. "If the people have newly elected people and they are dissatisfied with current highway commissioners, those (new) people should be seated within 62 days."

The situation has caused much confusion at Hagerman Highway District in Gooding County, said district Clerk Barbara Ravenscroft.

Outgoing commissioner David Tupper is considering resigning in July, she added, or just allowing the incoming official to participate in board discussions.

"We are not sure what we're doing," Ravenscroft said. "We're still in the process of feeling this out."

Chris Fillios, Eastside commissioner-elect, said he has been in contact with the state and the county prosecutor for a final word on his starting date.

"Ideally, we'd want to take office on July 1, but on the other hand, we don't need to have a hostile transition," said Fillios, who will take Dick Edinger's seat.

He likes the idea of sitting in on board discussions, like Hagerman is considering, but he isn't sure if it would work in his much larger district.

"I definitely want to be part of the budgeting process, no question," Fillios said.

He will at least attend the budget workshops the commissioners hold, he added.

"The new budget is amendable," he reminded.

Mark Addington, who defeated Eastside Commissioner Jimmie Dorsey, said he isn't going to protest his slightly shortened term.

"That's fine with me. I expected to start in October," Addington said.

For now, he added, he is content to let the current commissioners take the wheel in planning the budget.

"I'll be happy with watching it get done, and then next year doing something different," he said.

Dorsey said he and Edinger plan on serving their full terms to the best of their abilities.

He is open to involving the commissioner-elects in discussions, he said, but neither have approached him so far.

"They've not been in my office," he said. "I can't help anybody if they don't show up."

As always, he added, the commissioners will set the budget through public workshops and a public hearing.

Dorsey believes the budget will have to be amended, he added, once the Kootenai County commissioners review three local improvement districts that would bring Eastside over half a million dollars.

"Whether they're approved or not approved, that's a lot of money," Dorsey said. "There's no way to do a budget knowing what the funds are going to be until after the county makes their decision."

Edinger also said the commissioners will take the budget seriously.

The Legislature just overlooked the overlapping terms during the creation of the consolidation law, said Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls.

"Quite frankly, it's not a surprise," Hammond said. "There was a substantial effort to try to take care of all those different little details that will crop up because of all the different district elections being consolidated. I'm not surprised we had a little difficulty there."

Eastside is the county's only highway district with outgoing commissioners this year.

There is still good news for the incoming officials, McHugh said.

"The newly elected officials have the remaining term to make whatever changes they may want to put into place," the county prosecuting attorney said. "They have that whole opportunity going forward, so they'll certainly benefit from their election results."