COEUR d'ALENE - County Commissioner Jai Nelson once again asked her colleagues to abandon the process of replacing the former airport manager.

"I heard you both in the public meeting that you are both willing to extend the hiring process," Nelson said during a debriefing meeting on Monday. "But truly I am going to ask you to just stop this hiring process, period."

Nelson said the commissioners heard from the two newly elected county commissioners last week, who informed them that - barring any glaring misdeeds in his personnel file - they plan to reinstate former airport manager Greg Delavan in January once they take office.

"I think it is disingenuous to advertise and interview, or to require a potential applicant to fly here for an interview and perhaps consider making a significant life change for them and their families," she said. "I think it is just disingenuous, so I don't think we should be advertising at all."

Commissioner Dan Green said he did agree to extend the timeline, but only if the county does not receive enough qualified applicants for the job.

The current deadline for submitting applications is Friday.

"If we need more time to find quality applicants, I have no problem with that," Green said. "It would only be disingenuous, in my opinion, if I tell the applicants about the political climate up here."

Nelson questioned why the commission would move forward and hire someone who is very likely to be replaced in January.

"We've had two commissioners say what they are going to do, and I can't go through with this charade," Nelson said. "That is just so disingenuous."

Green said he heard one of the new commissioners say he knows he doesn't have all of the facts yet, but once he sees the facts - and unless he's given a good reason not to - he plans to reinstate Delavan.

Commissioner Todd Tondee said he talked with the other commissioner-elect, who said the same thing.

Tondee wants to brief the new commissioners on the facts of Delavan's termination and possibly allow them to participate in the selection of the new airport manager.

"I am going to recommend that - and I already have legal working on creating a document - we have them sign a confidentiality agreement," Tondee said. "Then we go over everything with them and make them part of the hiring process."

Tondee said he agrees with Nelson and he doesn't want hire someone and two weeks later have them replaced.

"If they are willing to be part of the process, we can bring them up to speed and work on it that way," he said, adding they are still waiting on the advisory board recommendation on the process they want to use.

Green was not as willing to let the new commissioners help with the hiring decision, because they are not as versed in the multitude of issues as the current county commissioners.

"Also I think this board has made some great hires, and I welcome input from both of you and your insight," he said. "To exclusively turn it over to the two of them is not fair to them."

Seeing that the commissioners were not going to abandon the process, Nelson pushed for a later deadline for applicants to submit their resumes.

Tondee and Green pushed back, saying the only reason they would be willing to extend the deadline is if they don't get enough qualified candidates.

Tondee said the Human Resources department is getting a fairly good response from the advertising it has done, and the county has already received applications from five qualified candidates.

Tondee plans to review the applications on Friday and make a determination at that point as to whether there is a need to extend the application deadline.