Kootenai County commission candidate Bruce Noble says his engineering work experience provides the right background to tackle the county's land-use code woes.

Noble said he has worked both as an advocate and adversary for various land-use proposals and has knowledge of the existing code and the proposals for updating it.

Noble is the founder and owner of HydroGen Energy, a renewable energy company specializing in small and "micro" hydroelectric projects. He also is a contract field engineer and a former city engineer for the city of Post Falls.

"The Kootenai County commission leadership is broken and it needs to be fixed," said Noble, 60, a resident of Kootenai County since 1982. "It won't be fixed by the same thinking and it won't be fixed by electing extreme ideologues who simply want to fight the federal government. We need to deal with our problems straight-on and honestly."

He is running for the nomination to be the Democratic Party candidate for the District No. 1 seat currently filled by Todd Tondee.

Noble proposes making the county commission job part time and electing them by geographic district.

He supports instituting a commission-manager form of government that Idaho code permits.

"Kootenai County is in need of professional management," Noble said. "The commission-manager form of government will allow the county to better handle the core business of managing personnel and providing services to the citizens."

The amount of money paid in employment lawsuit settlements and the premiums to insure against the payouts are outrageous and can be lowered with better management and better management structure, Noble said.

He also wants to consolidate the county's highway districts, as code permits, to save money and manage projects more efficiently and at lower cost, he said.

Noble, of Post Falls, was born and raised in Idaho and earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho. He is the father of two adult children, and he and his wife have been married for 33 years.

Noble's opponent for the Democratic nomination is Tamra Dale, of Post Falls.