By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Greg Delavan has support to be rehired as the Coeur d'Alene Airport's manager after being fired — again.

Delavan, who was fired by county commissioners last week on a 2-1 vote and also in 2014 before being reinstated in February 2015, has been recommended by the Airport Advisory Board to be re-hired.

Delavan said he wasn't expecting the board to make a recommendation, but he wasn't surprised about the direction either.

"I've worked closely with the advisory board and we've accomplished a lot at the airport," he said. "We work well together. I've worked more closely with the board on a day-to-day basis than the county commissioners.

"I didn't know that they were going to (make the recommendation) until they did it."

The recommendation, which was unanimous by all of the board members who cast a vote on Wednesday night, now falls into the hands of the county commissioners.

Two-thirds of the commissioners — Chris Fillios and Bob Bingham — became new members on Monday. Last week, outgoing commissioner Dan Green and current commissioner Marc Eberlein, voted to fire Delavan. Outgoing commissioner David Stewart voted to retain Delavan.

Fillios said it's unclear when or if the commissioners will consider the recommendation. He declined to say whether there's interest from any of the current board members to re-hire Delavan or bring it to a vote, citing it being a personnel issue.

"We haven't planned anything at this point," Fillios said. "It's a personnel situation and a recommendation was made to us. The only decision that stands currently is the one made by the prior board. With two new members, we have to come up to speed on what transpired before we can make any decisions."

Messages left with multiple advisory board members were not returned on Thursday.

Delavan said he would leave his options open if he's offered the position again.

"I'd certainly consider it," he said. "I'm dedicated to the mission and the job, and it's not timely for me to leave. I wasn't ready to leave, and I've got a number of projects that I'd like to complete. Frankly, I plan to retire at a time not too far off and I'd like to leave on my own terms rather than those of commissioners who had a vendetta to get rid of me."

Delavan, who has been the airport's manager for 22 years, did say he's committed to the community and elected to stay put rather than moving on to other airport jobs as often is the case in the industry.

"I'm from this community originally, and I care about it and the airport," he said.

Delavan said he wasn't given a reason why he was fired either time.

"I'm only left to speculate like everybody else," he said, adding his employee file has no marks of being reprimanded.

Delavan said actions against him have disrupted the flow of the airport operations.

"I don't want to go through this again," he said. "It's not fair to my family or the staff."

Eberlein said he realizes having a strong leader at the airport is critical.

"It's an economic driver," he said of the facility. "There are a lot of people here because we have the airport."