In part because of the dismissal of former Coeur d’Alene Airport manager Greg Delavan, the Coeur d’Alene Airport has attracted considerably more public interest lately.

Here is what was originally posted by the Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners for the agenda of the Special Meeting – Airport Master Plan Workshop.

However, here is a more detailed and updated version of the meeting agenda.   The date and time remain the same, but note the room change at the County Administration Building.  The meeting will now be on the ground floor, Meeting Room 1 A/B.  The new room is larger, so that suggests a larger audience is expected.

OpenCdA attended a similar meeting in that room on November 4, and the sound reinforcement was completely inadequate.  We hope the organizers of Wednesday’s meeting have a decent sound system so the audience and participants will be able to hear.  We presume that this is still an open public meeting.

OpenCdA believes that it is time for a special prosecuting attorney from far beyond Kootenai County to investigate the administration and management of Coeur d’Alene Airport (COE).  But we also believe that any prosecutor should have the courage and horsepower to go where the evidence leads him (or her), even if it goes beyond the borders of the airport to the County Administration Building or the Public Safety Building.

As we have reported in several preceding OpenCdA posts, the firing of longtime airport manager Greg Delavan prompted an outpouring of support for him from local aircraft owners and operators as well as from local businesses who see COE as playing an important role in the region’s economy.  His loyal supporters were often equally outspoken in opposition to the two Kootenai County Commissioners (Green and Tondee) who decided in an illegal meeting to fire him.

Constrained by several factors, Commissioners Green and Tondee were unable to publicly disclose exactly what led to Delavan’s firing.   Unfortunately, they didn’t help clarify the issue when they admitted making the decision to fire him in an executive session board meeting, a flagrant violation of Idaho’s Open Meeting Law.  As a result, the interested public was left with the impression that there may have been no valid reason for Delavan’s firing.

And then this article headlined Audit reveals bad billing appeared in the local skewspaper, the Coeur d’Alene Press on November 14, 2014.   The article suggested there may have been valid reasons for firing Delavan.  Online comments appended to some of the skewspaper’s articles reporting Delavan’s firing reinforced that suggestion. (more…)