COEUR d'ALENE - Both candidates in the race for the District 1 seat on the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners say most of the change they will bring the office comes down to management style.

Democratic candidate Bruce Noble wants to replace what he considers to be a "lack of management" with "professional management" by adopting the commission-manager form of government allowed in Idaho Code.

Republican candidate Marc Eberlein wants to restore the community's trust in county governance, while working to improve the morale of the county workforce.

Noble's plan is to expand the county commission to five part-time commissioners and hire a county manager.

"There would be a professional county manager hired to be the liaison between the commissioners and department heads that are under the jurisdiction of the commissioners," Noble said.

He believes the change is necessary to allow the commission to focus on setting policy, and the manager could administrate that policy and provide continuity through the continuous transition of elected officials.

Under the current form of government, Noble explained that two of the three commissioners can be replaced and the incoming commissioners have to begin managing the departments under their jurisdiction right away.

"But there is a huge learning curve, and having continuity with a commission manager could solve that," he said. "The work environment that the current commission created is not healthy."

He said employees feel undervalued.

"The salary issue is going to be difficult to solve, but the appreciation part is easy to solve," Noble said. "We need a manager to make employees feel appreciated."

Noble has researched the issue and found there is a growing trend of municipalities switching to a commission manager form of government.

Eberlein said the county is facing a number of issues such as updating land use codes and dealing with the jail expansion needs, but he said "employee morale is huge."

He said he has been meeting with employees at the county and cannot believe how many people he has talked with who have never met the commissioners.

He said if he is elected, he will consider himself equal with all other employees.

"In every business I have ever had, I have never used the word 'boss,'" he said, adding that he plans to encourage simple pleasantries to improve morale, but he also wants to fix the under-compensation problems in the county's workforce.

"I find this an easy one," he said. "It is cheaper to pay them more."

Eberlein said the county currently bases its wages on a statewide survey of similar jobs in Idaho, but the problem is Kootenai County is competing with the workforce compensation in Spokane.

He said the employees he talks with about the subject love Idaho, and don't want to work in Spokane.

"But if the pay difference is huge - they have families to feed and bills to pay," he said, explaining that employees say a couple of bucks an hour increase could prevent them from leaving.

"So I say, if it is $100,000 to train at $2 an hour that is 50,000 man-hours - that's 25 years on the job," he said. "If you take out the benefits and everything else they earn, you are talking 12 to 15 years on the job," he said.

In the sheriff's office, Eberlein said they recently lost four of five deputies who had been working for seven to eight years. That pattern has been common for years, he said, and that has eroded the succession of leadership in the department.

"That's our mid-tier people," he said. "They are the ones who are supposed to be our next leaders."

Eberlein said Kootenai County has become a training ground or school for all the other law enforcement agencies in the region.

"We need to ignore the rest of Idaho and base our pay scale on this area from Coeur d'Alene to Airway Heights," he said. "I believe we will actually save more money in the long run because we are not training new people continuously."

Both candidates said they think the land-use code update is coming along, but they both plan to keep an eye on it to ensure that it doesn't veer off track.

Eberlein said he thinks the jail expansion issue needs a lot more due diligence, and confidence needs to be built in the community before it is put to the voters again.

Noble believes the jail expansion issue needs more work as well, and he said alternatives to incarceration will be a major component of that.

Online — Watch a video of the candidates discussing some key issues: bit.ly/EberleinNobleVideoCDAPress

Bruce Noble

• Age: 61

• Profession: Civil engineer and surveyor

• Educational Background: Civil engineering

• Public Service: Idaho Commission Libraries, chairman of Kootenai Bridge Academy Board of Directors

• How many years as a resident of your city: 22 years

• Marital Status: Married 33 years, with two children

• Hobbies: Whitewater rafting, cross country skiing, crossword puzzles, reading and college basketball

Marc Eberlein

• Age: 55

• Profession: Business owner

• Educational Background: Some college, but mostly self-taught

• Public Service: Church volunteer

• Marital Status: Married 36 years, with four kids and nine grandchildren

• Hobbies: Shooting, fly fishing, bird hunting and socializing