Kootenai County rehires fired airport manager

Greg Delavan has his old job back as manager of the Coeur d’Alene Airport. Delavan was fired last October by the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners, but this morning the board voted 2-1 to reinstate him at his same salary and benefits. Delavan also will be paid for the three months he was out of a job. He did not receive any type of settlement, but for two years Delavan will have an extra layer of job security as a “for-cause” rather than “at-will” employee, board Chairman David Stewart said. Stewart and the other newly seated commissioner, Marc Eberlein, voted for Delavan’s reinstatement agreement. Commissioner Dan Green, one of two commissioners who voted to terminate Delavan last fall, opposed bringing him back but said he’d now work to implement the board’s reversal. The county has not released Delavan’s contract. Delavan went back to work today. His firing triggered public criticism of the board of commissioners, which never fully explained the reason for terminating Delavan, the airport manager for 20 years. During their campaigns for commissioner last fall, both Stewart and Eberlein questioned Delavan’s firing and indicated they’d look to rehire him to oversee the county-owned airport in Hayden. Stewart said he carefully reviewed Delavan’s personnel file and talked with airport advisory board members, past county commissioners and other elected officials, real estate developers, property owners, airport tenants and aircraft owners in order to decide if the county should give him his job back. “For me there was no smoking gun” that justifies not rehiring Delavan, Stewart said. Delavan and several of his supporters attended today’s brief board meeting for the vote. “I’d like to thank you very much for bringing me back,” he said at the end of the meeting. “Kootenai County and the Coeur d’Alene Airport are very important to me, and I look forward to working with the board.” “I look forward to working with you, too, Greg,” Eberlein said. “I couldn’t find any dirt on you,” he added, drawing chuckles from the small crowd. Green said he opposed giving Delavan a special employment agreement that other county employees do not enjoy. All county workers, except those in the sheriff’s office, serve as at-will employees who can be fired without cause. “I think having an employee contract for anybody, whether it’s Greg or anybody else in the county, flies in the face of our current Kootenai County personnel policy of at-will, and I do not support having a contract for anybody, because that’s setting a precedent for one individual which could be brought forth by others,” Green said. Stewart responded, “It’s my belief that this is a unique situation for the reinstatement of Mr. Delavan, and that such an agreement would have to be in writing. It wouldn’t be something that I’m sure that Mr. Delavan and his attorney would agree to verbally. I wouldn’t.” He also noted that the county was facing a liability risk over Delavan’s termination, which also makes the agreement prudent.