COEUR d'ALENE - In January, the two new members of the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners will be able to terminate any new airport manager who might be hired in December.

Some had speculated that the current board could possibly hire a replacement for recently fired manager Greg Delavan and lock that person in place with a contract, tying the hands of a new board.

County personnel policy, however, says non-elected department heads serve at the pleasure of the commission. The personnel policy manual says employees work "at-will."

Skye Reynolds, the county's human resources director, pointed out Friday that the manual says "either the employee or Kootenai County may terminate employment at any time and for any reason."

Only the sheriff's office has a "for-cause" personnel policy, which trumps certain policies set by the commissioners.

Current Commissioners Todd Tondee and Jai Nelson will be replaced by David Stewart and Marc Eberlein in January. Commissioner Dan Green and Tondee fired Delavan, while Nelson opposed that.

Green, who will be on the board with Stewart and Eberlein, said he wouldn't try to lock someone in place.

"I would never support doing that," Green said.

Still, the county is taking applications until Dec. 12 to fill Delavan's spot.

Green said he neither wants to hire somebody who would be immediately fired by the new board, nor does he want to hire somebody by an arbitrary deadline. He just wants to hire someone when a qualified candidate is found.

"If I find the right person, I'm comfortable filling the position" before the new board is sworn in, Green said. "Right now we're short staffed."

He said it would be "disingenuous" to hire someone he knows the next board majority wouldn't want.

"That's not fair to the individual," Green said.

Stewart and Eberlein have both suggested they'd like to reinstate Delavan.

Stewart clarified Friday he hasn't reached a conclusion and wants to review Delavan's employee file as soon as he can. He is giving the current commissioners the benefit of the doubt, knowing they have all the information. He is also giving the benefit to Delavan, pointing to the Airport Advisory Board's recommendation of reinstatement.

"That carries a lot of weight for me," Stewart said. "He has a lot of supporters."

Stewart doesn't understand what the rush is to find a new manager, saying the interim manager, Phillip Cummings, has plenty of experience.

At the same time, Stewart said, a decision on a new airport manager would be one of the first decisions he would like to make.